Leon the Professional : My Review

There are some movies, which are generically under the action/thriller segment, but due to some small angles or perspectives, it becomes a love drama. "Leon the Professional" is one of those movies, which has created a nostalgic, as well as a thrilling feel in my mind.
 "Leon the Professional" (originally titled as 'The Professional' in US) was released on 1994. It was directed by Luc Besson, starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman (debut).  It was a French action/thriller movie, but in English language.
 The plot was surrounded mainly with the above mentioned three characters. Leon (Jean Reno) was a hitman ('Cleaner', according to him), whose room was in an apartment, of beside which, there was a dysfunctional family, the Landos. One day Leon met Lando's younger daughter, Mathilda (Natalie Portman). Mathilda's abusive father attracted the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who had been paying him to stash cocaine in his apartment. After they discovered he has been cutting the cocaine to keep for himself, DEA agents stormed the building, led by drug addict Norman "Stan" Stansfield (Gary Oldman). During the raid, Stansfield quickly became unstable and murdered Mathilda's entire family while she is out shopping for groceries. She understood the outrage, and seek help from Leon. After some moments, he opened his door, and Mathilda saw sunlight in her eyes.
  In this context, Mathilda came to know about Leon's profession. She wanted to appoint him to kill the men, who had killed his little brother. But Leon disagreed. He even tried to kill her, but due to some eternity, he couldn't. Mathilda asked Leon to teach her how to clean the city. After some time, Leon agreed. Leon then went to the 'Old Tony' (Danny Aiello), who gave him shelter and job, and asked for the beginner's kits. He told that it was for his own practice. After that, He took Mathilda and went to another apartment, and hired a room. On the rooftop, they had started their practicing. Mathilda also came to knew different points, like how to be fast, how to understand where is the door-chain and many more tricks. In exchange, she run his errands, cleaned his apartment, and taught him how to read. In time, the pair formed a close bond. Mathilda looked up to Leon and quickly developed a crush for him, often telling him she loves him, but he refused to reciprocate.

  As Mathilda and Leon recover from the ordeal, Leon tells her about how he became a cleaner; when Leon was young in Italy, he was in love with a girl from a wealthy family. The two made plans to elope, but when the girl's father discovered their relationship, he killed her out of anger and escaped justice. Leon killed the father out of revenge and fled to New York, where he met Tony and trained to become a cleaner.
   Later, while Mathilda returned home from grocery shopping, a NYPD Emergency Service Unit team sent by Stansfield captured her and attempts to clear Leon's apartment. Leon ambushes the ESU team and rescues Mathilda. Leon created a quick escape for Mathilda by smashing a hole in an air shaft; he told her to meet him at Tony's place in an hour, and told that he loves her, moments before the police blew up the apartment. In the chaos that follows, Leon sneaked out of the building disguised as a wounded ESU officer; he went unnoticed save for Stansfield, who followed him and shot him in the back. As he was dying, Leon placed an object in Stansfield's hands that he said "from Mathilda"; Stansfield discovered that it was a grenade pin. He then opened Leon's vest to find a cluster of active grenades, which promptly detonated, killing Stansfield.
  Mathilda went to Tony, as Leon had told her to do earlier. Mathilda tried to convince Tony to hire her in Leon's place, but Tony flatly refused to hire a twelve-year-old, and told Mathilda he had been instructed by Leon to give his money to her if anything happened to him. He gave Mathilda $100 from Leon's funds as an allowance, and send her back to school, where the headmistress re-admitted her after Mathilda revealed what had happened to her. She then walked onto a field near the school to plant Leon's houseplant, as she had told Leon that he should "give it roots".

  The whole movie have some shades, as well as some perspectives. From the beginning, we have seen that Leon is a tough, emotionless guy. We see that after got beaten by her abusive father, Mathilda asks Leon that, "Is life always this hard?", Leon replied "Yes, always". His only love was his tree, according to him, who is like him, no roots, always happy and no questions. But with significant turn of events, we received the other side of him, the love side. Mathilda taught him how to read, taught him some of life's significant lessons with her own 'twelve year'. While Mathilda reveals her feeling about Leon, at first he denied, but with time he understands that there is a change that is happening inside his subconscious mind. Being fallen in love, he agrees to help Mathilda to learn the beginning of the cleaning. 'Old Tony' was like a father to Leon. Leon have deposited his money to him. Tony often said that it is more secure than bank 'cause banks often broke down, but no one can break down Old Tony. Tony understood the change of Leon's subconscious, that is why we see that he often tries to remember him about his bitter past to be a hitman. But the love has more power to win over bitterness, that is why Leon took the risk, and saves Mathilda, while lose his own life.
  Mathilda is a twelve year old girl, but her maturity is double. Actually the circumstances help to get mature. She taught Leon to plant his only friend, to give it roots. Leon loved his tree, more than anything. Being fallen in love, Mathilda also started love the tree. She even quite smoking, as Leon told that it can break her body. At first Tony didn't want to join her in the cleaning, but Leon was a son to him. After death of Leon, she even plant the tree, in the middle of the playground of her school.

  Last but not least, here comes Norman "Stan" Stansfield, the villain. Another drug addict guy, loves the calmness before the thunderstorm, loves Beethoven and Mozart, but he thinks that after 5th or 6th octave, it becomes boring. He loves to listen music, but if someone disturbs him during that time, he can't control his anger. He also has a powerful sniffing ability, with which he comes to know who is lying.
  These four are the main characters of this movie. Every characters have different shades. I saw a very less number of action movies like this in which the main characters have so much shades. There are darkness, there are destruction, there are chaos, anger, but on the other side, there is hope, there is sunlight, moreover there is love. The different camera perspectives, and the different scenic description make this film more lovable. That is why, from my angle, "Leon the Professional" is really a professional work of Luc Besson.


Plot reference: Wikipedia
Poster reference : Google