Review of Léon: The Professional (1994) by Luis V — 28 Dec 2011

A memorable action thriller. Jean Reno starts as the titular hitman living in New York City's Little Italy. His neighbour is the 12 year old girl Mathilda, a feisty girl whom has problems with his family. His family is killed by Norman Stansfield a corrupt DEA agent; Mathilda survives the massacre because she was shopping when it happened. She receives sanctuary from a reluctant Leon. Mathilda begs Leon to teach him how to be a hitman in order to kill the criminals that killed his family. As the film progresses, their relationship becomes stronger and unusual. Leon opens a new side and asks himself whether he should love again?

Leon is a perfect example of what a movie should be like. Put a character the goes through a dilemma in his life, and through the plot of this movie he changes. Leon is a killer, but he became a killer though loving someone, and through a new love he finds redemption. The character Mathilda represents the innocence of Leone before he became a killer. While there isn't a lot of action in this movie, there is plenty of good acting and a great screenplay. The performances of this movie were well played. This is Natalie Portman's first role, and she steals the show as the tomboy girl, she's smart, sweet and strong. Let me tell you this, besides Black Swan, is one of the best performances she gave in her career because there is so much emotion in this girl, falling in love for the first time, trying to kill the person that murdered his family, is just jaw-dropping. Jean Reno also gave a great performance as the protagonist of a man trying to take care of this girl and not trying to take advantage of her. The chemistry of the two leads work perfectly in this movie because is funny, entertaining and emotional, if you don't feel for these two characters then you won't get this movie. Leon has this plant that might represent wisdom, because is something that both characters hold throughout the movie is because is a movie of them dealing with their mistakes and they grow up throughout the movie. Gary Oldman's performance was yes over the top but still it scary, especially when he faced the family. The cinematography of this movie was also well made; I like how it captured the emotions of the characters. At the beginning of this movie when Leon is doing his job, all the victims of this movie, how they die, how he does his business is seriously well made entertaining. The film deals with the fact of vengeance, whether we should kill even do we know is wrong. What's worse being killed or becoming a monster?

Now the antagonist of the movie, is not the performance of that I mind, is that we didn't get to know much of the character. The only thing we know about him is that he loves Beethoven and the protagonist and the antagonist don't confront until the end of the movie. Now even do the soundtrack is awesome, I didn't think that it applied well to the story. I mean you see the movie and it's about a hitman in New York, but the soundtrack sounds like they are in the Middle East. There was a scene in which many SWAT troops invades his apartment, send a bazooka towards the apartment and then Leon leaves in a hidden Swat suit. How did he got that suit? How did he put on that Swat suit so quickly?

The film was directed by Luc Besson. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer. He is known for making the film La Femme Nikita. Léon was nominated for seven César Awards in 1995.

I recommend this movie to people that seriously love drama/action movies, to people that enjoy great performances. To people to want to watch something, different, something new because there are cool movies out there and this is one of them. If you enjoy a great mixture of action and drama then I recommend this movie to you. If you want a thought-provoking movie about the consequences of murder than you should watch this. Besides its obvious flaws, this is one of my favorite movies because is really a memorable film that should be watched by its every-movie goer.