Léon *** [Léon: The Professional] (1994, Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello) – Classic Movie Review 1244

This slick but reprehensible 1994 English-language French urban neo noir thriller is directed with knowing flash that is all surface and no depth by co-producer/ writer/ director Luc Besson. His story about an illiterate mob hitman, Léon (Jean Reno), and his love affair with a 12-year-old girl called Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is dead dodgy.

Gary Oldman is totally unpersuasive and over the top in a throwaway performance (with a wobbly American accent) as corrupt, psychotic New York DEA agent Norman Stansfield, who slaughters the girl’s family when her father double-crosses his gang in a drugs deal. Young and streetwise, the girl, who escapes the bloodbath by hiding out with the hitman, persuades him to becomes his protégée and teach her his trade to avenge her family’s death.

The characters are total cyphers: Léon kills without emotion, loves his plant and the girl, that’s all. The dialogue is jokey, treating the film as though it is an homage to Quentin Tarantino, but it hasn’t any of his wit or resonance, and much of it sounds made up on the spot.

What it has in its favour is Besson’s skill to orchestrate suspense and action, which he does really well, plus the excellent noir camerawork by visually stylish cinematographer Thierry Arbogast and a powerful score by Eric Serra.

Also on the plus side, Reno gives a very strong and capable performance, the debuting young Portman plays Lolita to perfection (including impersonations of Madonna and Marilyn), while Danny Aiello is an asset in a support role as Tony, the Italian mobster who gives the hitman his assignments.

But, because the characters are so over-drawn, you don’t really care about them. The violence level is high with a lot of leering over bodies and blood, and the paedophiliac story is iffy, but the idea of teaching of a 12-year-old child to murder in cold blood and become as hit-person is exploitative and disgraceful.

It is not clear whether it is all supposed to be funny, or if some of the dialogue and action are merely unintentionally funny. Infuriatingly, this story just couldn’t happen like this: Reno’s character would be dead in life’s first reel. I know, I know, it’s only a movie, Ingrid!

The international release runs 110 minutes but the director’s cut has a lot of extra material at 136 minutes. Besson considers the 110 minute version the director’s cut and the 136 minute version The Long Version. Besson wanted to release The Long Version but the extra scenes tested poorly with Los Angeles preview audiences.

Also in the cast are Peter Appel, Michael Badalucco, Ellen Greene, Elizabeth Regen, Carl J Matusovich, Frank Senger, Betty Miller and Geoffrey Bateman.

Léon and Mathilda’s New York apartment building is on the northwest corner of East 97th Street and Park Avenue.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1244

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Léon and Mathilda’s New York apartment building.