Léon The Professional

A Lolita complex is described as an older man’s unhealthy attraction to a young girl. A Mathilda complex could be defined as an older man’s training of a younger girl in the ways professional assassination. What the heck am I talking about? Well, in Léon: The Professional (more commonly known as The Professional) a French hitman (Jean Reno) living in New York (it could have been that they were tyring to portray him as Italian, but I’m not clear on that) takes a 12 year old girl (Natalie Portman in her first role) under his wing when her entire family is murdered at the behest of a crooked DEA agent (Gary Oldman). In a way, it’s a sequel (or sidequel) to La Femme Nikita, and is a thoughtful, multi-layered story that deals with a number of different issues, but mostly concerns itself with the strange romantic relationship between Léon and Mathilda that, if anything, is consummated with bullets.

This movie firmly established a number of people in the world of Hollywood, including Natalie Portman who has yet to turn out a better performance than this one, and Director Luc Besson who has since created films like The Fifth Element, and written such films as Taken, Unleashed, District 13 and The Transporter. It also makes better use of shooting in New York than I’ve seen from most other American films and TV shows using it as a backdrop. Say what you want about them, but the French really know how to wield a camera. The incredible vista over Central Park when Léon teaches Mathilda how to use a sniper rifle is particularly gorgeous.

As luck would have it, Léon: The Professionalcomes out on blu-ray today – it’s got a bunch of cool features, but most importantly it has a director’s cut of the film that’s about 24 minutes longer than the original, great stuff with Léon actually taking Mathilda out on jobs.