If you're a fan of Natalie Portman, then you'll be happy to find out that she's here and she was in her pre-teens on this one. A very iconic role for her and her acting prowess already shined herein. She plays Mathilda, a 12 year who lives in New York and is a neighbor of Leon Montana (played by Jean Reno).
Movie starts with Mathilda meeting Leon along the halls of their apartment building, where the latter wants to be left alone. Leon is a cleaner or a hitman so like likes solitary living, he doesn't want any attention to himself. Mathilda's father is a keeper of drugs for a group of bad cops in New York. This relationship with the cops turned sour when Mathilda's father skimmed some dope that resulted to the whole family being killed. Mathilda was able to survive the brutality of that cop Norman Stansfield (played by Gary Oldman). Mathilda was shopping when it all happened so when she saw them all dead in their apartment.
Quick thinking on her part, she went passed the killing and went to her neighbor, Leon for her safety, who sheltered her. Being inside his apartment she immediately learns what Leon does for a living. She wants him to teach her how to a hitman, begging him in exchange for her doing his errands, shopping, and cleaning his apartment. Reluctantly he accepts and proceeds to train her with the art of killing. A bond was established between the two and Mathilda starts to feel love for Leon who did not reciprocate.
While Leon was out on assignment, Mathilda finds Leon's stash of guns, she "borrowed" some and went after Norman at the police station. Being a newbie at the hitman game, she was apprehended by Norman himself. Leon rescued her at the station and Norman discovered that Mathilda and Leon are together. Norman then was able to locate the two and went to their apartment with everything the police had.
Leon was able to subdue all who tried to "arrest" him and he helped Mathilda escape first from their apartment. He made his own escape after however he was detected by Norman and was subsequently shot in the back. Norman went over to check on Leon, and the latter gave him a pin. A pin from a grenade that he pulled from his vest, creating a huge explosion, killing both Leon and Norman. He did this to protect Mathilda from Norma.
Mathilda then realizes that Leon is no longer coming, she went to Tony (played by Danny Aiello, Leon's handler), and tried to convince him to hire her as a cleaner. Tony seeing how young she still was, refuses to hire and instead gives her some money and sends her back to school.
Leon: The Professional is a great hitman film, if not the best in our film collection. Great direction coming from Luc Besson, this film is so basic yet its so endearing. Wonderfully written script, dealing in some risque topics of graphic violence and a love story between a 12 year old apprentice and an adult hitman. Risque as it was, the script handled it well without making it obscene or over the top and very much well mannered adding to the greatness of this movie.
Another notable point to watch his movie is Jean Reno was great as Leon, and Luc Besson in an interview admitted that this character was really for Reno. When Reno did an earlier film by Besson, La Femme Nikita, he immediately made a spin off film using the character of Victor (played by Reno) and made Reno a star of it. Natalie Portman was surprisingly wonderful as that 12 year old Mathilda. Besson auditioned a lot of actors for the part of Mathilda and he really wanted Portman to do it. Eventually this was a breakout film for Natalie Portman. A film with Gary Oldman in it is a good sign already saying "watch me please" plus we have Danny Aiello here as well. These 4 actors alone is well worth that money spent on your blue ray or DVD.
Story line wasn't that new, but it was given a fresh lease on life with a love angle and using graphic violence to push some form of entertainment. We said the script was great and the story telling was wonderful as well. Resulting in a great roller coaster ride of emotions that we loved this movie so much. Other viewers think so too thus it gained a cult following in some of its fans.
If you see this movie in the blue ray or dvd shelves, this is a great buy to add to your movie collection. A great movie for a marathon and we can't stop suggesting it to you.
