Leon:
The Professional is one of
Luc Besson's greatest films. When I first saw this movie it was the original one with no cuts, so I was happy when I bought the
Director's cut of the
DVD that was exactly the same. I remember watching the movie again, renting it from a video store and was disappointed that some scenes were left out.
Natalie Portman plays a 12 year old girl named
Mathilda whose family is killed by corrupt
DEA officers, the leader being a
cocaine addict is played by
Gary Oldman.
Mathilda becomes vengeful and urges Leon to teach her how to be
cleaner, not because they killed her whole family, but because they killed her little four year old brother who did nothing to anyone but just cuddled with her.
On the day of her family's
massacre she was out buying groceries and she saw the
destruction of her family and walked right past it to another apartment. She finds refuge with
Leon, a
professional Italian hitman also known as a
cleaner after an intense moment of his
indecision to open his door to her or not.
The love that grows between
Mathilda and
Leon is disturbing at first but becomes something that is sweet.
Mathilda treats
Leon like a
lover, but he treats her like a
daughter and this is conveyed well throughout the movie. She may have fallen in
love with him because he was kind to her, unlike her real parents who ordered her around and
abused her.
All actors in the movie give great performances, especially
Natalie Portman since this is the first role of hers in the movie business.
Gary Oldman makes you want to kill him since he plays a
unsympathetic psycho who takes his crack and then compares everything to a
Beethoven or
Mozart composition.
Jean Reno plays the lovable, serious older man who does not socialize much except for when he visits his friend/Boss
Tony to get another job. Before he met
Mathilda his only realy companion was his plant that he waters and places under the sun everyday.