#67 - Léon: The Professional (1994)

You know those films that are very good, but at the same time, there isn't anything special about it? Léon: The Professional is one of those. It doesn't stand out, following the "lonely, preferrably old guy reluctantly meets young character that grows into him" tried and true formula. It adds a twist to it with interesting ideas and original characters, and on itself it is a great film. It just doesn't have the same impact as, say, Gran Torino.

Jean Reno stars as Léon, a solitary hitman (his best friend, as he puts it, is his houseplant). He lives next to Mathilda (a young Natalie Portman), a 12 year old girl abused by her dysfunctional family. And by dysfunctional, I mean that to the point that her father hides coke in their apartment. And that gets Mathilda's family killed by a corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Léon reluctantly saves Mathilda, hides her from Stansfield. And eventually takes her under his wing and teaches her to become a "cleaner", to exact revenge on Stansfield.

 

Don't worry, the film is good enough to make a 12-year-old hitman believable.

The chemistry between Léon and Mathilda is phenomenal. I know it's the usual reluctant couple that eventually warms up to each other, and Léon is the usual lonely, grumpy (well, not so much) guy and Mathilda is the usual annoying girl that later on becomes a more mature person, but it still works. It may get a tad creepy when Mathilda starts having a crush on Léon. Asking him to kiss her and such. But other than that, the relationship between the two is more of a father-daughter thing, and it's well executed.

The "villian", Stansfield, totally steals the show, though. And I say "villian", because the Gary Oldman's performance is really exaggerated. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't kill the more serious tone of the rest of the film,  but it adds a little campiness and humor to the film while still being menacing. He comes with all the clichés: comparing his murders to art, yelling at his "henchmen": he's batshit crazy. That could be a turndown to some people but hey, I personally enjoyed it. And the way he goes down, oh man.

 

You'd freak out too if Gary Oldman started sniffing you.

That being said, Léon: The Professional isn't a film that stands out a lot. It is a very good movie and I enjoyed it a lot, but there isn't anything remarkably special about it. Despite the fact that it has great characters and actors to go with them, we've seen the same story a lot of times already. Er, maybe there weren't hitmen in the formula before, but at its core it's the same movie. There are a lot of better films out there but go ahead and give it a watch if you want, you won't be dissapointed.