Léon: The Professional (1994) Review: Tenderness at Gunpoint

Is Léon: The Professional worth watching?

Yes. Léon: The Professional is one of the most stylish and emotionally resonant action thrillers of the 1990s, a violent fable about two lonely people that remains hugely watchable. Luc Besson pairs sleek set pieces with an unexpectedly tender story, and Jean Reno and Natalie Portman, in her screen debut, create an unforgettable pairing. The reservation is that the film’s treatment of their bond has elements that feel troubling today, and Gary Oldman’s villain is pitched at a volume that some will find thrilling and others excessive.

What is Léon: The Professional about?

Léon (Jean Reno) is the most efficient hitman in New York, a “cleaner” who lives an austere, solitary life, drinks milk, tends a houseplant and takes his contracts from a local restaurant owner (Danny Aiello). Next door lives 12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a neglected girl in a chaotic household. When her family is wiped out by a corrupt, unstable DEA agent, Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), she knocks on Léon’s door, and he reluctantly takes her in. Before long, Mathilda wants revenge, and she asks Léon to teach her his trade.

Léon: The Professional is written and directed by Luc Besson, a French production shot in New York and made in English. It runs 111 minutes; a longer international version adds further scenes of Mathilda’s training.

Besson’s slick, operatic style

Besson directs with bold, comic-book energy. The opening sequence, in which Léon methodically dismantles a gangster’s security team, establishes his almost supernatural efficiency with wit and precision, and the later set pieces are staged with the same crisp clarity. Thierry Arbogast’s cinematography gives New York a warm, grimy glow, and Éric Serra’s score adds a moody, melancholy pulse.

What elevates the film above most 1990s action is its patience with character. Between the shootouts, Besson lingers on small rituals: Léon’s careful ironing, his nightly routine, his cinema outings with Mathilda. These moments give the violence emotional stakes.

Reno, Portman and Oldman

Jean Reno plays Léon as a gentle, childlike man whose deadly skill contrasts with his near-total innocence about the world. It is a sweet, quietly heartbreaking performance, and it makes the killer oddly lovable. Natalie Portman is astonishing for a first-time actor, mixing wounded vulnerability with precocious bravado, and she holds the screen with total assurance.

Gary Oldman’s Stansfield is one of the most famous villains of the decade, a pill-popping, Beethoven-loving predator whose unpredictability makes every scene tense. Oldman goes all the way over the top, and the film is more exciting for it, even if the performance occasionally tips into caricature.

The film’s uneasy heart

The relationship between Léon and Mathilda is the film’s emotional core, and it is also its most uncomfortable element. Mathilda’s declarations of love and some of the framing of their relationship carry undertones that many viewers now find troubling, especially in the longer version. Besson keeps Léon’s response innocent, but the discomfort is real, and it is fair to weigh it when deciding whether to watch.

Who should watch Léon: The Professional?

It is a strong choice for fans of stylish crime and action thrillers and for anyone interested in 1990s genre filmmaking at its most distinctive. At under two hours it is tightly paced. It contains frequent violence, drug use, strong language and mature themes involving a child in dangerous situations, so it is for adult audiences.

Try these next:

• La Haine, another landmark of 1990s French cinema, rawer and more political.
• A Prophet, a gripping French crime drama about a young man schooled in violence by an older criminal.
• Anna, Besson’s later female-assassin thriller, for a glossier variation on his favourite themes.

The verdict

Léon: The Professional is a slick, surprisingly soulful thriller powered by three memorable performances and Besson’s confident style. Its central relationship raises questions that are hard to set aside, and Oldman’s villain is deliberately excessive, but the film’s craft and emotional pull make it a classic of its genre.

Rating: 4.5/5