Léon: The Professional (1994)

Léon: The Professional (1994) 

Léon: The Professional (French: Léon; also known as The Professional) is a 1994 English-language French crime thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and features the motion picture debut of Natalie Portman. In the film Leon (Reno), a professional hitman, reluctantly takes in 12-year-old girl Mathilda (Portman), after her family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman). Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the hitman's trade.

Léon: The Professional was a commercial success, grossing over $45 million worldwide on a $16 million budget

Storyline

After her father, mother and little brother are killed by her father's employers, the 12-year-old daughter of an abject drug dealer is forced to take refuge in the apartment of a professional hitman who by her request, teaches her the methods of his job so she can take her revenge on the corrupt DEA agent who ruined her life by killing her beloved brother.

Plot

Leone "Léon" Montana (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner", as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. His work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello). Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant, and watching old films.

One day, Léon sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who is smoking a cigarette and sporting a black eye. Mathilda lives with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hall. Her abusive father and self-absorbed stepmother have not noticed that Mathilda stopped attending class at her school for troubled girls. Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to stash cocaine in his apartment. After they discover he has been cutting the cocaine to keep some for himself, DEA agents storm the building, led by sharply dressed drug addict Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). During the raid, Stansfield quickly becomes unhinged and murders Mathilda's entire family one by one while Mathilda is out shopping. When Mathilda returns, she realizes what has happened just in time to continue down the hall, where she desperately knocks on her neighbour's door. A hesitant Léon gives her shelter.

Mathilda quickly discovers that Léon is a hitman. She begs him to take care of her and to teach her his skills, as she wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother. Léon trains Mathilda and shows her how to use various weapons. In return, she runs his errands, cleans his apartment, and teaches him how to read. Mathilda tells Léon she loves him several times, but he offers no response.

One day after Mathilda has learned how to shoot, she fills a bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield. She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery girl, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Mathilda learns from Stansfield that Léon killed one of the corrupt DEA agents in Chinatown that morning. Léon, after discovering her plan in a note left for him, rescues Mathilda, shooting two more of Stansfield's men in the process. A now enraged Stansfield goes to find Tony, and assaults him in order to find out where Léon is.

When Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team sent by Stansfield captures her and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and grabs Mathilda. Back in his apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Mathilda by smashing a hole in an air shaft. He reassures her and tells her that he loves her and that she has given him "a taste for life", moments before the police come for him. In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. He goes unnoticed save for Stansfield, who recognizes him, follows him downstairs and shoots him in the back. As he is dying, Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands that he says is "from Mathilda". Opening his hands, Stansfield discovers that it is the pin from a grenade. He then opens Léon's vest to find a cluster of active grenades, which detonate moments later, killing them both.

Mathilda heads to see Tony, as Léon had instructed her to do before he died. Tony reveals to Mathilda that Léon instructed him to give his money to her if anything happened to him. He offers to hold the money and provide it to her on an allowance basis, on account of her youth. Mathilda asks Tony to give her a job as a hitman; Tony angrily declines, telling Mathilda to forget about her ordeal and return to school. Mathilda meets with the school headmistress, who readmits her after Mathilda tells her what had happened in the past several days and if the headmistress doesn't help her now, Mathilda would be dead by the end of the day. She then walks into a field near the school to plant Léon's houseplant, as she had told Léon he should, to give it roots.

Cast

• Jean Reno as Leone "Léon" Montana
• Gary Oldman as Norman Stansfield
• Natalie Portman as Mathilda
• Danny Aiello as Tony
• Michael Badalucco as Mathilda's father
• Ellen Greene as Mathilda's mother
• Peter Appel as Malky
• Elizabeth Regen as Mathilda's sister
• Maïwenn as The Blond Babe

User Review

With enough blood and gore to please any fan of action movies, and a unique love story to please the ladies, this is a great movie for couples to watch together. However, to truly comprehend the beauty of this film, you must see the European Cut.

The U.S. version is still a great movie, but it cuts out 24 minutes which contain much of the heart of the movie and most of what makes the film a work of art instead of the usual action fodder. Elements of the story which are only hinted at in the U.S. cut become the centerpiece of the story when the un-cut version is seen.

The two main characters are a recently-orphaned girl who is wise beyond her years and a hitman who is still an innocent. Their relationship unfolds against a backdrop of murder and revenge as director Luc Besson explores issues of age and maturity, good and evil, and the interplay of life, death and love.

The acting in this film is superb. Reno has an expressive face which conveys a myriad of emotions with great sensitivity and few words. He is cold as ice as the almost super-human 'professional', but his performance is most moving when he reveals his sensitive side. Watching as his wounded soul slowly begins to heal is enough to touch the heart of any woman, but it is handled so subtly that it never becomes too 'sappy'.

In her film debut, Natalie Portman turns in a performance that is beautiful beyond belief. She manages the transition from a frightened child to a woman capable of killing so convincingly that it makes the relationship between she and Leon not only believable, but understandable.

Gary Oldman is just the best psycho there is, and it is kind of nice to see him without all the strange makeup for a change. As a dirty cop in this film he personifies evil, and it is a joy to watch him do his thing.

The special effects are all you could hope for. Besson does great actions scenes - especially the explosions. There is also a lot of humor and when you throw in the tender love story - this picture has it all!