Film Review: Leon The Professional

Director: Luc Besson

Written and directed by Luc Besson, it became a film that made the names of both Besson himself and the name of a young Natalie Portman. It has garnered huge praise for Gary Oldman as the villain DEA agent Norman Stansfield. The film is based around New York City but most of the indoor scenes were shot in France.

Léon (Jean Reno) and Mathilda (Natalie Portman)

Leone "Léon" Montana (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or cleaner as he refers to himself as) living in Little Italy in New York City, taking jobs from local mob boss Tony (Danny Aiello). He does little outside of work except tending to house plants and obsessive calisthenics. 12 year old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) ends up forming a bond with him after problems with her incredibly dysfunction family that lives down the hall. They both suddenly get wrapped up in a battle against corrupt DEA Agent and drug addict Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman).

The performance of Natalie Portman is given a lot of the plaudits from the film, for such a young actress to play that role is very impressive. Quite often child actors are given too much praise simply because they are young but that is certainly not the case here. Jean Reno is decent as the emotionless Léon but Gary Oldman is clearly the most impressive as the unpredictable and bad tempered Stansfield. His lines are almost poetic at times but mask an almost sadistic side to him that becomes apparant after popping more pills.

Corrupt DEA Agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman)

As a film it does look slightly dated and at times over the top spectacle, I think it does separate itself from reality on too many occasions but as a thriller it is an innovative film with some different ideas to the norm at heart. Many films shows the Italian mob scene as a sharp and luxurious affair whilst Leon The Professional paints the world of a hitman as a sparse and troubled world with a particular line from Léon being "it changes you, once you kill somebody you are never the same again. You sleep with one eye open." It could easily have glamourized the violence and the world of being a professional hitman but it does exactly the opposite.

3/4 slightly dated but still an engaging yet innovative film