Léon: The Professional (1994)

Luc Besson could have made no other films after this one and his name would still belong in cinema history. Léon is from 1994 and it doesn’t feel dated now. If anything, the rarity of its particular atmosphere has grown clearer with time. Hitman Léon (Jean Reno) and twelve-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman), who has lost her family and taken shelter with him — it was impossible to predict how this combination would play out, and Besson pulled universal human feeling from it. My rating is ★4.5. A film I can strongly recommend to someone who hasn’t seen it, and one that holds up on repeat viewing.

What it’s about — A Hitman and a Girl Living Together

A Manhattan apartment on the Upper West Side. Léon (Jean Reno) is a cleaner by profession — his work is killing, without emotion — but he lives alone and quietly: drinking his milk, watering his plant. His twelve-year-old neighbour Mathilda (Natalie Portman) suffers under a violent home life, and one day has her entire family killed by corrupt DEA agent Stansfield (Gary Oldman). Only Mathilda survives and knocks on Léon’s door. He lets her in, and a strange cohabitation begins.

Direction — The Contrast of Action and Warmth

Besson achieves a good balance between action set on New York’s streets and the psychological space inside the apartment. Léon’s working scenes are quick and efficient; the scenes with Mathilda are unexpectedly quiet and warm. That contrast shows the collision of two worlds. The scenes in which Stansfield — played by Gary Oldman — appears are overblown and dangerous, and that instability makes the film’s threat feel real.

Performance — Natalie Portman’s Debut

This is Natalie Portman’s debut. At thirteen at the time, she simultaneously plays anger, grief, and provocative behaviour beyond her age, proving from the very start that she was someone special. The fact that Mathilda’s insistence on not showing tears reads paradoxically as more heartbreaking is down to Portman’s performance. Jean Reno shows how wide a range of emotional expression is possible through a character who speaks almost nothing. Even the way Léon drinks a glass of milk alone conveys his loneliness.

What the film says — Two People with Nowhere to Belong

Léon is about two people who couldn’t find anywhere to belong. Léon is someone who knows nothing beyond killing; Mathilda is a child who was never safe anywhere in the world. The two meet and for the first time find stability in each other’s presence. Léon teaches Mathilda to read and write; Mathilda returns something like human emotion to Léon. How you choose to read the relationship between the two may generate discomfort, and there is criticism that Besson deliberately left that boundary ambiguous. But that complexity is also what keeps people talking about this film.

Ratings & reception

TMDB score is 8.3. IMDb is 8.5, Rotten Tomatoes freshness is 76% — the audience score is considerably higher than the critical score. On US release there were different cuts: the director’s cut and the edited version, with the director’s cut containing scenes that more explicitly depict Mathilda’s feelings — which attracted controversy. It is the most artistically highly regarded film in Besson’s filmography.

What doesn’t work

The ambiguity the director permits in the relationship between Léon and Mathilda may feel uncomfortable to some viewers. This is particularly more pronounced in the director’s cut, and it is the film’s most contested element — one that bears reconsideration by contemporary standards. Whether you treat this as the film’s intentional complexity or as a problem is a matter for each viewer to decide.

Verdict

Léon crosses genres. It is an action film, but the most intense thing in it is not the gunfights but the scenes of the two people watching a film together or eating a meal. Jean Reno and Natalie Portman’s chemistry is one-of-a-kind, in 1994 as now, and Gary Oldman’s villain is hard to forget. I want to tell anyone who hasn’t seen this film to go and watch it right now.

Recommended for

• Fans of films with strange, complex human relationships
• Those who want Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, and Gary Oldman’s performances together
• Viewers looking for Luc Besson’s signature work balancing action and drama