Where to begin?
I put Natalie Portman's performance in this movie alongside Haley Joel Osment's in The Sixth Sense as one of the best acting jobs by a preteen in any movie, ever. The reason is this: when a child has a lead role in a movie that he/she would not be old enough to see in a theater, you know that it would take a superior performance to truly stand out. And Natalie does not disappoint.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
One scene says it all - she returns from the grocery to find her family massacred and the cops who did it still there. Trying not to show how visibly shaken he is, she keeps walking to Leon's door as if it's her own, and her plaintive whimpering for him to let her in nearly made my heart rip in two.
Until that moment, Leon had the luxury of keeping the rest of the world outside his door, not getting involved in anyone's life (except to kill them). Initially, he is resistant to having this young waif invading his comfort zone; he even contemplates killing her while she slept! But we know that Leon, like the rest of us, will fall under Mathilda's spell; she's too beautiful, too alone and too in need of a protector for Leon not to fall in love with her.
Much has been made about Luc Besson's using a 12-year-old girl as a sexual icon, but that's subject to broad interpretation in my opinion. Twelve is precisely the age that most young girls discover their ability to draw the eyes of men (of ANY age), and I applaud Mr. Besson for embracing that fact instead of acquiescing to the vagaries of political correctness. Is "Lolita" a great work of literature or simply child pornography? Girls that age have always been, and will always be, desired by older men. Call it what you will: reprehensible, disgusting, perverted; but that doesn't make it less true.
Gary Oldman has built his career on playing villains, and few play them as well as he. Whether a scene calls for him to be quietly menacing or deliciously over-the-top, he can do it. The Professional, Dracula, Hannibal, The Fifth Element... he brings a dramatic flair to his bad guys that makes him stand apart from many who play movie villains.
I don't know what substance it was that Gary's character took (perhaps someone will tell me?), but whatever it was, it set him into an altered state of consciousness wherein killing an entire family was akin to conducting a symphony orchestra. And hearing him scream "EVERYYYYONNNEEEEE!!!" sent chills up my spine!
And last but not least, Jean Reno as Leon, the title character, was perfectly done. Speaking English with a thick enough accent that we were JUST able to understand what he was saying, Jean was able to infuse a depth of character into Leon with seemingly very little effort. Mathilde, in a very short time, transforms Leon from cold remorseless killer into a valiant avenging angel. We want so badly for them to make that daring escape and have that happy ending that they deserve, but we all know deep down that it just wasn't going to happen.
In the final scene, when Mathilde replants Leon's beloved potted plant in the yard of her boarding school, we are left with such a sense of not only happiness but sadness as well, which is accentuated by the haunting strains of Sting's "Shape of My Heart", the perfect ending to a fabulous movie.
My score: 10.
I put Natalie Portman's performance in this movie alongside Haley Joel Osment's in The Sixth Sense as one of the best acting jobs by a preteen in any movie, ever. The reason is this: when a child has a lead role in a movie that he/she would not be old enough to see in a theater, you know that it would take a superior performance to truly stand out. And Natalie does not disappoint.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
One scene says it all - she returns from the grocery to find her family massacred and the cops who did it still there. Trying not to show how visibly shaken he is, she keeps walking to Leon's door as if it's her own, and her plaintive whimpering for him to let her in nearly made my heart rip in two.
Until that moment, Leon had the luxury of keeping the rest of the world outside his door, not getting involved in anyone's life (except to kill them). Initially, he is resistant to having this young waif invading his comfort zone; he even contemplates killing her while she slept! But we know that Leon, like the rest of us, will fall under Mathilda's spell; she's too beautiful, too alone and too in need of a protector for Leon not to fall in love with her.
Much has been made about Luc Besson's using a 12-year-old girl as a sexual icon, but that's subject to broad interpretation in my opinion. Twelve is precisely the age that most young girls discover their ability to draw the eyes of men (of ANY age), and I applaud Mr. Besson for embracing that fact instead of acquiescing to the vagaries of political correctness. Is "Lolita" a great work of literature or simply child pornography? Girls that age have always been, and will always be, desired by older men. Call it what you will: reprehensible, disgusting, perverted; but that doesn't make it less true.
Gary Oldman has built his career on playing villains, and few play them as well as he. Whether a scene calls for him to be quietly menacing or deliciously over-the-top, he can do it. The Professional, Dracula, Hannibal, The Fifth Element... he brings a dramatic flair to his bad guys that makes him stand apart from many who play movie villains.
I don't know what substance it was that Gary's character took (perhaps someone will tell me?), but whatever it was, it set him into an altered state of consciousness wherein killing an entire family was akin to conducting a symphony orchestra. And hearing him scream "EVERYYYYONNNEEEEE!!!" sent chills up my spine!
And last but not least, Jean Reno as Leon, the title character, was perfectly done. Speaking English with a thick enough accent that we were JUST able to understand what he was saying, Jean was able to infuse a depth of character into Leon with seemingly very little effort. Mathilde, in a very short time, transforms Leon from cold remorseless killer into a valiant avenging angel. We want so badly for them to make that daring escape and have that happy ending that they deserve, but we all know deep down that it just wasn't going to happen.
In the final scene, when Mathilde replants Leon's beloved potted plant in the yard of her boarding school, we are left with such a sense of not only happiness but sadness as well, which is accentuated by the haunting strains of Sting's "Shape of My Heart", the perfect ending to a fabulous movie.
My score: 10.