Leon: The Professional (1994) - Warning Spoilers

 

Director/Screenplay: Luc Besson

Starring: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aello
My rating: XXXXX
IMDB: 8.6/10

You'd be mistaken for thinking that this film falls in to the same strange category as Lolita, that Nabakov novel that has been adapted in to film countless times. The most famous of these adaptations being the one starring Jeremy Irons. I'll put my hand up and say I have never read the book, but the film was a masterpiece of modern cinema.

But this is quite different. IMDB considers this a Top Rated Movie, being number 27 in the all-time-best-films-of-all-time ever ever, and it has to be one of my favourite films of all time scoring five out of five in my personal rating.

Mathilda is twelve years old, and has already led a hard life. When her drug dealer father and family are killed, she is taken in by their neighbour. He is an illiterate hit man who seems to bond with the girl over the course of the film as she quests for vengence against the man who killed her family and her younger brother, who she seems more attached to.

The film has musical references reminiscent of Besson's late ninties masterpiece (I liked it anyway) The Fifth Element. Reccurring themes include the lonely tough guy who is good at shooting stuff, the young nubile heroine who is in peril who has to be saved by the much older solitary tough guy and that both films are set in New York, albeit at different points in history. But that is where the paralells stop.

Gary Oldman (Fifth Element, The Dark Knight Rises) masterfully plays a bent DEA agent with his goons who commit the murderous act, Danny Aiello (Godfather Part II, Once Upon A Time In America) plays Leon's 'friend' Tony who brings back his New York gangster persona which made The Godfather Part II such an amazing fil

The attraction that Mathilda develops for Leon does, at times, make for uncomfortable viewing though Besson generally deals with the subject without it becoming too creepy; it doesn't become a dominating issue throughout the film and stays in proportion to the other sub-plots and themes.

If you want to watch a classic Besson film then this is a perfect starting point.
Purchase the Blu-Ray from Amazon here...