Poll Position: Leon: The Professional

I guess it is better late than never. Been busy most of this week and I finally got some time to watch last week’s poll winner “Leon: The Professional”. I am rather excited to see a crime thriller; I’ve wanted to see more of these types of films since watching Donnie Brasco and Taxi Driver. See what I thought after the jump.

Let me get to the story, and an interesting story it is. The movie centralizes around Leon (Jean Reno) who gets entangled with his apartment neighbour’s daughter Mathilda (a very young Natalie Portman). Mathilda finds her family dead after a quick trip to the shop, and Leon is there to save her life. After getting more acquainted with one in other, we find out that Leon is a professional “cleaner” who wipes out any member of society his boss Tony don’t like. Mathilda’s only life goal now is to eliminate the murder of her brother, she asks Leon to train her and show her the trades.

Lesson 1: Learn to use a rifle.

A lot of good has to be said about this movie, from the characters to the downright action of this movie. Both Reno and Portman steal the show, with their chemistry and acting abilities. Leon is best described as a circuit breaker. When he is on, he is this silent, deadly killer. He makes no mistakes and follows the rules to a T, gets in and out without leaving a hint. He makes Sam Fisher look like a rookie. Now the only thing that breaks him is Mathilda, but she isn’t the normal girl you expect. She is a tomboy, with a foul mouth, disrespect for rules and she even smokes. But because of her childlike innocence, Leon has a soft spot for her. And when she breaks him, over powering him with her attitude, he turns off. But when he is off, he is a far different person. He is goofy, childlike and trusting of Mathilda. And this is why I found the character of Leon to be so fun to watch, he isn’t just one role, he plays two and both are very fun to watch. Though the bad guy, even though he was a DEA agent, was played by none other than Gothham cities own protector (Gordon), Gary Oldman. His name, Stansfield and he was a borderline psychopath. He had to get his man by his way by his standards. Amazing to watch and Oldman filled the characters shoes amazingly.

Mr. Piggy and Leon getting goofy.

But let me get to the fun stuff, the amazing action. There is a fair amount of action in this movie and all done very well. I was always cheering him on and wondering what was next. All of Leon’s cleaning jobs were all unique and fun to watch. It was great to see him train Mathilda, and they even have a little montage. But a good reason why everything looks so good was that the movie was filmed beautifully. The camera work was fantastic, from the intense close ups of each character to the deathovision of the final death.

It was hard not to compare this movie to Taxi Driver, though this movie made me feel nowhere near as nervous watching a grown man with a very young girl. I really liked this movie; it was just so well done and kept he hooked from start to finish. This has to be my favourite performance by Ms. Portman, and no I have not seen Black Swan.