Léon: The ProfessionalApprenticeship, fatherhood, guardianship...all of these are words to describe how the older generation prepares the younger for life. Léon: The Professional--released as Léon in France and The Professional in the United States--is a crime thriller about a professional "cleaner" (read: hitman) named Léon (Jean Reno), who takes in an orphaned young girl named Mathilda (Natalie Portman) after her family is gunned down by a corrupt DEA agent named Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Seeking revenge, Mathilda pushes Léon to teach her how to become an assassin despite his apprehension to do so.
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Written and directed by Luc Besson, The Professional expands on themes from his earlier film, La Femme Nikita, also about an assassin (and also featuring Jean Reno). The New York City of this film is a dirty hovel of crime and corruption, where innocence is a liability. Léon is a nice guy (for a hitman), living a simple--almost spartan--life for someone who is a contract killer. He lives in a noisy, grimy walkup apartment, and has a fixation on drinking milk (for some reason). He is very skilled at his work, but is not apparently terribly bright, given that he has fallen in with a mob boss calling himself "Old Tony" (Danny Aiello), who all but pockets his fees for killing, trickling out a pittance to the hitman as needed. Tony reminds Léon that he fell on hard times due to a woman, although The Professional does not explore this in detail. (The international release, I understand, expands on this to some extent.) Léon is described as "Italian", although he couldn't appear more French unless he was wearing a beret, so I'm not sure how this was supposed to go unnoticed. Léon keeps to himself and doesn't seem suited for any other kind of work...or so Tony might like for him to believe it would seem. He is illiterate, which Mathilda figures out early on, but this doesn't seem to impede his work as a professional killer. Léon's background is enigmatic, but what the film does is explore his character through his actions. When Stansfield slaughters Mathilda's family as she is out buying groceries, she returns and cautiously knocks on Léon's door instead of giving herself away as the missing daughter in that scene of carnage. Léon reluctantly opens the door and both saves her life and endangers his in the process. But Mathilda becomes fixated on Léon, and manipulates him into letting her stay with him and even train him to be a cleaner. He opposes the idea...but doesn't really resist as much as he should. He takes her up to a rooftop, where they paintball some politician jogging in Central Park in one of the film's moments of levity.
The relationship between Léon and Mathilda is a confused one, and tends to reinforce that awkward stereotype about French filmmakers and prepubescent girls. Mathilda believes that she is in love with Léon, and even manages to get them kicked out of one hotel after she tells the manager that Léon isn't her father, but her lover. Strange behavior for someone both trying to stay under the radar and from someone who should be grateful to the man who saved her life. The Professional was actress Natalie Portman's film debut, and her role here has an uncomfortable (and inappropriate) "Lolita"-like quality to it. Mathilda acts far too old for her age, smoking cigarettes outside of her apartment and escaping from a private school for "troubled girls" on Roosevelt Island. She is also surprisingly adept at giving impersonations of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin--surprising that she knows of them given her age. Despite some occasional teases of impropriety, the relationship between these two outcasts is more like one of a father and daughter than otherwise. There is an excellent montage after Mathilda moves in involving Léon and then Mathilda putting his houseplant out on the window sill for sunlight, as the two of them engage in the chores of everyday life, getting used to each other. Moments like these help to add believability to their bond, which becomes a major factor at the film's climax. Despite a chilling performance by Gary Oldman, Stansfield is a cliché bad buy, acting maniacal while imagining Beethoven playing as he guns down Mathilda's family, or craning his neck in an uncomfortable way as he chomps down on some pills he keeps on his person. It's possible that The Professional is making some commentary on the inherently corrupt nature of institutions, including those that operate symbiotically with one another (as Stansfield explains to Tony at one point), but it is more likely that this depiction of New York City is just one that so happens to be crime ridden so as to justify how a hitman can function in this kind of society at all.
Recommended for: Fans of a crime movie that touches on paternal relationships and unlikely friendships in a pre-gentrified New York City. The Professional is certainly a product of its time, evidenced by (if nothing else) the fashions of the characters in the opening acts. It emphasizes style at the expense of tonal consistency. Despite this, the movie has become something of a cult favorite, and elements of it can be found in numerous places, such as the relationship between Lee and Clementine in "The Walking Dead" series of video games by Telltale Games.
The relationship between Léon and Mathilda is a confused one, and tends to reinforce that awkward stereotype about French filmmakers and prepubescent girls. Mathilda believes that she is in love with Léon, and even manages to get them kicked out of one hotel after she tells the manager that Léon isn't her father, but her lover. Strange behavior for someone both trying to stay under the radar and from someone who should be grateful to the man who saved her life. The Professional was actress Natalie Portman's film debut, and her role here has an uncomfortable (and inappropriate) "Lolita"-like quality to it. Mathilda acts far too old for her age, smoking cigarettes outside of her apartment and escaping from a private school for "troubled girls" on Roosevelt Island. She is also surprisingly adept at giving impersonations of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin--surprising that she knows of them given her age. Despite some occasional teases of impropriety, the relationship between these two outcasts is more like one of a father and daughter than otherwise. There is an excellent montage after Mathilda moves in involving Léon and then Mathilda putting his houseplant out on the window sill for sunlight, as the two of them engage in the chores of everyday life, getting used to each other. Moments like these help to add believability to their bond, which becomes a major factor at the film's climax. Despite a chilling performance by Gary Oldman, Stansfield is a cliché bad buy, acting maniacal while imagining Beethoven playing as he guns down Mathilda's family, or craning his neck in an uncomfortable way as he chomps down on some pills he keeps on his person. It's possible that The Professional is making some commentary on the inherently corrupt nature of institutions, including those that operate symbiotically with one another (as Stansfield explains to Tony at one point), but it is more likely that this depiction of New York City is just one that so happens to be crime ridden so as to justify how a hitman can function in this kind of society at all.
Recommended for: Fans of a crime movie that touches on paternal relationships and unlikely friendships in a pre-gentrified New York City. The Professional is certainly a product of its time, evidenced by (if nothing else) the fashions of the characters in the opening acts. It emphasizes style at the expense of tonal consistency. Despite this, the movie has become something of a cult favorite, and elements of it can be found in numerous places, such as the relationship between Lee and Clementine in "The Walking Dead" series of video games by Telltale Games.