It's typical of the 80s because it's preachy. Prostitution is bad and causes suffering to the people involved. Well, who would have guessed? This is a patchy film, and what others see as great acting I often see as shouting. As well as the shouting, there's a lot of grabbing people by the arm and hustling them along. There are some very good bits, though, including Hoskins' visit to a clip joint, his meeting with the girl in a grim cafe near Kings Cross (now long gone, as are most cafes like it). Another good bit is his rescue of the girl from the clutches of a horrible pervert in a room with a two-way mirror. (Did you enjoy that? You weren't meant to!) Robbie Coltrane is meant to be a bit of light relief but he is embarrassingly sentimental and unfunny in a peculiarly eighties way. I think "quirky" is the word I want.
