She has a tough outer layer but is secretly somewhat afraid on the inside. Portman, in her first major film role, plays a decidedly adult character trapped in the body of an 11-year-old girl. Watching him play this role is an education in a master class in acting. Oldman's Stanfield is crazy and slightly unhinged, again, with an outer coating of a polished politician. Reno is perfectly cast as the illiterate, loner assassin and his gritty exterior belies the soft, warm, mushy center he possesses underneath.
Leon: The Professional is no different, which is part of what makes it such a classic movie loved by audiences around the world.īesson's casting choices in this movie are excellent in this film which is part of what gives it such strong teeth. His decidedly French influence is obvious in everything from angles and costumes to the music chosen for his films' soundtracks. His stories tend to be ones of hope disguised as tales of woe and despair. Ultimately though they become a strange little family and start to care for each other, willing to make sacrifices for the other.īesson's voice is definitely unique and distinct in everything he writes and directs. Forced to live on the run, she enlists Leon's reluctant help. Stanfield (Gary Oldman The Dark Knight Rises). She later comes to find out one of those men is the crooked D.E.A. However, one day when she goes on an errand to the store she comes home to find her family dead and some bad men searching for her. She is constantly criticized and getting in trouble. She lives with her father, step-mother, half-sister and her younger brother. Matilda lives a lonely life as well except she is surrounded by people. That is until the one day fate puts Matilda in his path. That plant, in a terra cotta pot, is the only thing he seems to truly care about.
Every so often they engage in a short dialogue and then Leon retreats once again to his apartment and his lone plant. He lives in a small apartment in New York City and mostly keeps to himself save the 11-year-old girl, Matilda (Natalie Portman Star Wars: Episodes I, II and III) who lives down the hall. He lives a solitary, lonely life and seems to like it that way. Leon (Jean Reno Mission: Impossible) is a professional hitman a "cleaner" if you will. With his latest film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, hitting theaters this month, a few of his more well-known films are being released on 4K Blu-ray including Leon: The Professional. Highly stylized action films, they captured the imagination like none others had before. Luc Bessson ( La Femme Nikita) has been writing and making films since the early 1980's but in 1990 he became more of a household name with the release of Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element.