Leon: The Professional (1994)

This film was recommended to me months ago by a very good friend of mine, but I never got around to watching it. Yep, that happens with movies and me, they have to find me at the right time to be enjoyed, appreciated and – actually – watched.

Leon (Jean Reno), a professional hitman, finds himself taking care of his 12-year-old neighbour, Matilda (Natalie Portman) after her family is massacred over a drug dispute by a dirty cop (Gary Oldman). After learning what Leon does for a living, Matilda begs him to teach her his trade so that she can avenge the death of her 4-year-old brother, the only member of her family she truly loved.

First and foremost, this film is amazing. Done. Dusted. Review over.

Well, not quite.

This is a Luc Besson film, and I’m not sure if that says anything to anyone but a film dork like me, but Besson is brilliant, imaginative and, quite frankly, insane. Before stalking IMDB to discover that I have seen rather a lot of his films, I was only aware of ever seeing one by him, and that was The Fifth Element. He’s a master of action films, and he does them artistically as well as absolutely brilliantly. He also tends to reuse a lot of very good actors in his films. Yet another bonus.

I have to say that the thing I liked most about this film was its completely insane storyline. At the core of it, it’s about a hitman teaching a 12-year-old (who claims she’s 18, of course) how to kill people. And not just in theory, he takes her out practicing with him on his jobs. It’s not really a film that one would think would actually work without screwing over some kind of law or moral compass, but ridiculously it does.

Jean Reno is incredible, but that’s not news to anyone who knows who he is (if you don’t then I recommend this film and Ronin to acquaint yourself) and his character is, despite his profession, a wonderfully, believably compassionate and genuine person. He’s a man who got into the business through unfortunate circumstances, and who happened to stay in the business because he was damned good at it. He’s used to living and working alone, he has his dark past that he can’t forget or get rid of, and he has a small network of people in the city he works with. That’s what he’s used to, and that’s what he likes.

So when Matilda comes into his life, he’s a little more than lost as to what to do.

Natalie Portman is one of my favourite people. Not just as an actress, because she’s brilliant, but she is also one of the smartest people who I genuinely and truly respect in her life, professional and otherwise. In this film, Portman is 13 years old. Yep, no joke. She’s only 9 years older than I am so it was a bit of a shock for me too. Her character isn’t exactly damsel in distress either. If anything, I would label her as a mix between Nabokov’s Lolita and Dickens’ Artful Dodger. She’s wily and used to being mistreated enough to fight back. But underneath all that, she’s a young girl head over heels in love with the man that saved her life and took her in, and scared out of her mind by the revenge path she’s set herself on.

Gary Oldman is creepy and beautiful in this film. That’s really all I can say about him here without giving much away. He’s insane and incredibly beautiful. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen many films where he is so young yet, but he is just so damn handsome here. Did I mention crazy? He’s that too. But he tends to play those roles rather well (see Dead Fish, Book of Eli and The Fifth Element to name a few) so maybe tis not quite worth its own paragraph. Sadly his character isn’t developed enough to be more than simply freakish and mightily intriguing, but if you’re a fan of his and don’t know any of the other actors, then you should love him in this.

All up this film was incredibly enjoyable for me. I can’t even tell you why, maybe because Leon was so endearing, or because Matilda is absolutely captivating… maybe it was the idea that someone so small and so vulnerable could tame someone so powerful and closed off and make them love again. I would give this film an 8.5/10 and most certainly watch it again, with pleasure. I do warn potential viewers though, if you get somewhat freaked out by large age gaps in relationships you may want to take a step back. No, nothing happens, that would be illegal, but the tension is thick enough to slice with a knife, so before complaining to me about it just read this and be aware of it. I personally adore relationships with large age differences (like Sin City and American Beauty) but I know a lot of people don’t. Just be warned, get the damned movie and love it. That is all.

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