Leon~ AKA The Professional, AKA The Cleaner Character Name: Mathilda Go back Reviews From James Berardinelli's Film Reviews Professional - 3 out of 4 stars Date Released: 11/18/94 Running Length: 1:52 Rated: R (Violence, language, mature themes) Starring: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello Director: Luc Besson Producer: Patrice Ledoux Screenplay: Luc Besson Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast Music: Eric Serra Released by Columbia Pictures The career aspirations of Mathilda (Natalie Portman) aren't those of the average 12-year old girl. Instead of wanting to be a doctor, fashion model, teacher, lawyer, or nuclear physicist, Mathilda has decided to follow in the footsteps of her best friend, surrogate father, and protector, Leon (Jean Reno). The only problem is that Leon is a "cleaner" -- a professional hit man ("Cool" is her one-word response when she learns this tidbit of information). Mathilda comes from a very dysfunctional family. Her father is a drug dealer, his wife (played by Ellen Greene in a wig and performance that strongly recall images of Little Shop of Horrors' Audrey) despises her, and her half-sister enjoys beating her up. Mathilda's chief pleasure is hanging out in her New York City tenement building's stairwell, smoking cigarettes. One day, a crooked cop (played with typical over-the-top exuberance by Gary Oldman) decides to have Mathilda's whole family exterminated. When she arrives home to find them slaughtered, she goes to Leon, who lives down the hall, for help. Although he's at first reluctant to open his door to her, once he does, she worms her way into both his life and his heart. And she's not some wide-eyed innocent; her desire to learn about killing is fueled by the need to exact bloody revenge for her little brother's murder (she could care less about the other family members). In La Femme Nikita, writer/director Luc Besson proved his capability of putting as much octane and adrenaline into a thriller as any American director while keeping his formula uniquely non-Hollywood. Much the same is true of The Professional, which has sequences to rival those of Speed for white-knuckle excitement - not to mention a plot that's equally as preposterous. The real strength of The Professional, however, is the central relationship between Mathilda and Leon. Although not well-founded in reality, these two characters mesh nicely. Despite an occasional low-key hint of sexual attraction, this is basically a father/daughter or mentor/apprentice relationship. There's nothing unique about a young girl melting the heart of a hardened loner except the manner in which Besson approaches the theme. Jean Reno, essentially reprising his "cleaner" role from Nikita (where he was called Victor), plays his character with a perpetual deadpan (except when he lampoons John Wayne). He does more with mannerisms and body language than with facial expressions, and the closer he is drawn to Mathilda, the more uncomfortable he appears. The less traditional role belongs to an impressive Natalie Portman, yet another member of the highly-talented, recent group of youthful actors. Portman portrays a victim of society's ills, the perfect example of innocence corrupted. There are likely some viewers who will be disturbed by Mathilda's predilection for profanity. Because of the non-American flavor brought to this film by Besson, The Professional is anything but typical fare. It is stylish, darkly humorous, and almost artsy in its approach to the genre. Nevertheless, it delivers what viewers want from any thriller: lots of action. With some surprisingly strong character interaction, there's a lot to like about this movie, at least for those willing to look beyond all the bloodshed. At one point, Leon comments to an attentive Mathilda that "the closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client." Through the intimacy of the link forged by Besson with his audience, there's no doubt that he's as much the consummate professional as his implacable title character. © 1994 James Berardinelli

From Entertainment Weekly FRENCH-FRIED AND HARD-BOILED 'THE PROFESSIONAL' THRILLS TO A NEW YORKSTATE OF MIND Review by Lisa Schwarzbaum Luc Besson, the interesting French filmmaker best known for La Femme Nikita, has the voluble, naive, fou Gallic affection for New York City of a moviemaker who fell in love with the town via Gene Kelly movies and newspaper stories about la Mafia. In The Professional (Columbia, R), his first American movie, Besson sees marvelous visual possibilities in the existence of crummy tenement hallways strewn with mowed-down bodies. He sees cinematic romance in the fluorescent-lit downtown offices of corrupt drug-enforcement agents, in hole- in-the-wall eateries in Little Italy like the one presided over by Danny Aiello as Tony, a Mob capo, and in the unorthodox father-daughter- teacher- protegee love relationship that arises between an eccentric, solitary, satchel-eyed Mob hit man called Leon (Jean Reno) and his down-the-hall neighbor, a 12-year-old girl called Mathilda (12-year-old Natalie Portman in her first movie role), after her family is murdered by DEA thugs under orders from a psycho boss (Gary Oldman). Ah, monsieur, you can lead a Frenchman to the Big Apple, but you can't make him a New Yorker-and that's exactly what makes The Professional so fascinating. Reno (a longtime Besson collaborator with a compelling, Stallone- homely face and previous experience playing a hit man in Nikita) may be working with New York natives like Aiello and young Portman, but under Besson's tutelage, the French actor manages the cool trick of making Aiello act less New Yorkish than ever. And Portman-gravely beautiful with her dark hair shingled in the kind of Louise Brooks bob only a French girl not slave to YM magazine would in fact be self-confident enough to try-reacts to Besson's ministrations by making Mathilda into an extraordinary child. She's not Lolita, though you'll feel Nabokov's presence here in the delicate bird bones of her thin shoulder blades. She's not an exotic out of Diva, though you'll recognize the violent poetry of that Beineix masterpiece in the imagery. Mathilda is like no New York City girl-child I've ever seen riding the subway. And I couldn't take my eyes off her. There's a lot that's rough and out of control in The Professional-Aiello is low on energy, while Oldman indulges in a performance so operatically unhinged you'd think the actor was galloping toward the playing fields of Mickey Rourke. But there's even more that crackles here in enjoyable homage to the city that never sleeps. A- Go back

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