Leon (1994)

Average rating

(81%)

Starring:	Gary Oldman \| Jean Reno \| Natalie Portman \| Peter Appel \| Danny Aiello
Director:	Luc Besson
Studio:	OPTIMUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time:	109 mins
Collections:	100 must-see movies \| Ezio's Top 10
Genres:	Action/Adventure \| Thriller
Languages:	English
Hearing-impaired:	English
Subtitles:	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Freek, Icelandic
Released:	(unknown)

A murder on the streets of New York leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse while an orphaned twelve-year-old girl becomes caught in the middle...

Screenshots

Rating of 5 stars out of 5

French director Luc Besson followed his international hit Nikita with his first American-set movie, Leon, a haunting and compulsive thriller that explores the relationship between the emotionally stunted hitman of the title and his 12-year-old neighbour, Mathilda. The illiterate, milk-drinking, Sicilian loner (Jean Reno) is reluctantly forced to befriend and protect the girl, played by Natalie Portman, after her family is wiped out in a horrific drugs operation led by Gary Oldman, an utterly corrupt DEA agent. Leon ends up teaching Mathilda the tricks of his trade so that she can take revenge on the deranged cop. The two masterly central performances from Reno and Portman intelligently convey how Leon's carefully constructed, reclusive existence falls apart as he lets feelings enter his life for the very first time. But it's the ultra-stylish action scenes and the series of totally breathtaking set pieces, interspersed with a provocative streak of dark humour, that propel Leon into the suspense stratosphere as Besson redefines the action genre. Funny, tragic, brilliant and unmissable.

Highest rated reviews

123 out of 133 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Brilliant

A Customer from Brixton, 15th September, 2003

A film about an elderly hitman who takes a 12 year old orphan girl under his wing, sparking an ambiguous relationship in which the pair co-habit and, among other things, play 'dress-up' - in today's climate, Daily Mail readers would probably have raised an uproar. However, despite the deliberately blurred boundaries which exist between the central couple, this film is exceptionally touching, and both lead performances are incredibly moving and sympathetic.

As the eponymous Leon, Jean Reno convinces as both a fumbling man-child with no social skills, and a clinically effective hitman, performing jobs with a lethal detachment. Luc Besson handles the mix between action and burgeoning relationship with great skill, and the final third of the film has an unforgettable emotional punch.

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