Luc Besson knows how to make stylish action movies and Leon: The Professional, his first English language film, is one of his best. There's plenty of fast-paced action, but what really holds the movie together are the performances by Jean Reno as the title character and a very young Natalie Portman as his old beyond her years, protege. They share a terrific chemistry that is only slightly marred by the pedophillic overtones created not so much by the script, but by Besson's direction.
Leon is a professional hitman working in New York City. He works and lives alone, picking up assignments from Tony, an Italian mobster played by Danny Aiello. While Leon doesn't come across as the smartest person in the world, he's one of the best at his work.
His life is changed when one day his next door neighbor - a low level drug dealer - is killed, along with his entire family, on the orders of Stansfield, a corrupt DEA officer played with psychopathic gusto by Gary Oldman in full chewing up the scenery mode. The only member of the family who survives is 12 year old Mathilda, played by Natalie Portman. In one of the film's tensest scenes, she returns to her apartment building and sees the bloody carnage, but keeps walking past her apartment door and up to Leon's, hoping he will open the door for her so that the killers won't suspect she lives in the apartment they're standing in.
At first Leon plans on only letting Mathilda spend one night, but she soon worms her way into his life. She even insists that she wants him to train her to become a hitman as well so that she can get revenge for the death of her younger brother (the rest of her family weren't the most pleasant people and she doesn't give a shit about them). A very reluctant Leon eventually relents and begins her apprenticeship.
There are several scenes that were cut for the American release of the film because audiences found them awkward and I can understand why. In several scenes Mathilda tells Leon that she's in love with him and at one point tells him that she wants him to take her virginity. If there had been just one moment like this I could understand it. Mathilda's had a pretty fucked up upbringing and maybe she's been sexualized at an early age because of it. There are multiple scenes like it though and Besson seems to be shooting Mathilda as if she was a sexual being, older than she is. This is even more awkward if you know that actress Maïwenn Le Besco, who plays a prostitute in the opening scene has said that she met Besson when she was 11 and fell in love with him when she was 15 and he was 32. The character of Leon, I should hasten to add, never reciprocates Mathilda's feelings and treats her very much like a daughter. Reno has said in interviews that for Leon, the possibility of a physical relationship with Mathilda is not even conceivable.
The action is first rate and while often it goes well beyond the plausible, it's so stylishly done that it doesn't really matter. Besson has an eye for this sort of thing and the combination of his flair and the grittiness of New York City in the early 90s is a potent formula.
Along with the drama and the action there are several scenes of humor. A training montage when Leon takes Mathilda on several jobs, provides some deadly humor.
The heart and soul of the story is the relationship between Leon and Mathilda. It's what gives the ending its emotional impact. Portman gives one of the strongest performances of her career and Reno, while much more subdued, is a match for her. You'll enjoy the action, but you'll remember the movie because of them.
Lots of movies generate sequels, but very few actually deserve them. This movie practically screams for one. I want to know where Mathilda is now. Portman has recently said she'd be interested, but only if Besson directs it, while he has said that he's had the script ready for years, but apparently there are legal complications with the studio who produced this one. I only hope they eventually get worked out before it's too late.
