Léon: The Professional (1994)

Milk and a plant. That's all Léon has. A carton of milk he picks up from the corner shop every morning, sipping it slowly with a kind of quiet ritual, and a potted plant he tends to with more care and affection than most people give another human being. It tells you everything you need to know about him in seconds, and it's the kind of brilliant, economical character-building that runs through this entire film. Léon: The Professional is one of those rare films that earns every bit of its reputation.

Jean Reno is iconic in the title role. Stoic, awkward, lethal and unexpectedly tender, he plays Léon as a man who has stripped his life back to the absolute bare minimum, partly out of discipline, partly because the world has given him very little reason to want more. There's a sadness sitting just beneath the surface of every scene he's in, even the ones where he's being quietly, almost absurdly funny. It's a beautiful performance, and it's the kind of role that an actor gets once in a career.

Then there's Natalie Portman. Her debut. Twelve years old. Ridiculously, almost unfairly good. She brings raw emotion and real complexity to Mathilda, playing grief and fury and dark humour all at once, and never once feeling like a child actor going through the motions. The relationship between her and Léon is strange, yes, and the film doesn't pretend otherwise. But it's handled with surprising care, framed always through the lens of two people who are, in their own damaged ways, saving each other. The quiet moments between them, particularly anything involving that plant, carry more emotional weight than most action films manage in two hours.

And then Gary Oldman walks in and absolutely detonates the screen. He's brilliant in everything, but here he's operating on a completely different frequency. Every scene he's in feels like a powder keg. There's a theatrical, almost operatic quality to how he plays it, the long pauses, the sudden eruptions, the terrifying calm before every storm. "EVERYONE." is seared into film history for a reason. It's a performance that could easily tip into parody but somehow never does, because you genuinely believe every second of it.

Luc Besson directs the whole thing with tremendous style and confidence. The action sequences are sharp and inventive, the quieter scenes are given genuine breathing room, and the whole film has this gorgeous, melancholy colour palette that suits the mood perfectly. It knows when to be loud and when to be still, and that balance is what keeps it from ever feeling like a straightforward genre exercise. I've enjoyed The Fifth Element a great deal, but this is Besson at his absolute best, tighter and more emotionally grounded than almost anything else he's done.

The finale is explosive and heartbreaking in equal measure. I won't say more than that, but it earns every emotion it pulls from you, and it lingers. Genuinely lingers. I walked away from this wanting more time with these characters, wanting to know what Mathilda's life looked like five years on. A sequel was never made, and honestly, I understand why. Some stories are complete in themselves, even when they hurt because of it.

Four and a half stars. Stylish, emotional, unforgettable. An absolute classic, and I don't use that word lightly.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 1994  | Watched: 2025-04-06

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