Fresh off the amazing original movie version of La Femme Nikita, Luc Besson wrote and directed Leon (released in America in 1994 as The Professional), a film about a naive but effective Mafia killer and the 12 year old girl he briefly adopts. This has long been a favorite of mine, not only for the performances by Jean Reno and Natalie Portman as the title character and the child, but for the way in which Besson puts a huge amount of blood and violence on screen and makes you only pay attention to his characters.
Portman’s father is a slimy man, a minor functionary in the drug business, who runs afoul of dirty DEA Agent Gary Oldman. Michael Badalucco has tried to cut himself in on a bagful of drugs he’s holding for Oldman and when he refuses to return the missing portion, the DEA agent and his crew murder the family. Fortunately Portman’s Mathilda is out buying milk for Leon, who lives in the next apartment, when all this goes down. Reno has no desire, even seems to fear, getting involved by allowing Portman into his apartment while the cops are cleaning up their mess. But he does.
Leon is a naif, a grown man imported from Italy to do the bidding of a Don played by Danny Aiello. He can’t read and doesn’t realize that all the money he believes has been earned through his past wet work will never leave Aiello’s hands. But Mathilda awakens the human being inside a lifeless husk, teaching Leon to read while he teaches her his profession. All she wants is revenge for the murder of her sweet four year old brother. In the end, after she and Leon fight off and kill massive numbers of heavily armed lawmen, Mathilda gets her wish at a heavy price.
There are times when Besson seems to take the movie towards a paen to child love. Portman is clearly prepubescent while some of the looks Leon gives her are more than fatherly and this is echoed in the way the camera captures her as well. Yet he is too much the innocent to be guilty of more than simply forgetting his own age and just wants to protect this precious gift, someone who has offered him more affection than ever been given before.
Highly Recommended
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