Genre: Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Length: 1h 50m 0s
Director: Luc Besson
Tagline: A perfect assassin. An innocent girl. They have nothing left to lose except each other. He moves without sound. Kills without emotion. Disappears without trace. Only a 12 year old girl... knows his weakness.
Plot outline: Mathilda, a twelve-year old New York girl, is living an undesirable life among her half-family. Her father stores drugs for two-faced cop Norman Stansfield. Only her little brother keeps Mathilda from breaking apart. One day, Stansfield and his team take cruel revenge on her father for stretching the drugs a little, thus killing the whole family. Only Mathilda, who was out shopping, survives by finding shelter in Léon's apartment in the moment of highest need. Soon, she finds out about the strange neighbour's unusual profession - killing - and desperately seeks his help in taking revenge for her little brother. Léon, who is completely unexperienced in fatherly tasks, and in friendships, does his best to keep Mathilda out of trouble - unsuccessfully. Now, the conflict between a killer, who slowly discovers his abilities to live, to feel, to love and a corrupt police officer, who does anything in his might to get rid of an eye witness, arises to unmeasurable proportions - all for the sake of a little twelve-year old girl, who has nearly nothing to lose. Summary written by Julian Reischl {julian.reischl@stud.uni-muenchen.de} A hit-man tries to lose himself in New York. When a neighbor family is killed, he takes in the surviving twelve year old girl, and teaches her to be a cleaner, so she can avenge her little brother. Summary written by Timothy King {mks765@nwu.edu} Leon is a hitman, and happy with his life. When a young women comes home to find her family has been killed by a drug dealer, she runs to him for help. When she discovers he is a hitman, she asks him to teach her the skills to take her revenge. Summary written by Colin Tinto {cst@imdb.com} Leon is a first-class hit man, but is also a sensitive guy who loves his potted plants. He is moral: "No women, no children" is his professional motto. He is sympathetic to his neighbor, Mathilda, a typically rebellious twelve-year-old who has trouble with her family. But when her father runs afoul of drug kingpin Norman Stansfield, Mathilda turns to Leon for assistance. Summary written by Reid Gagle
Comment: Generally a love story about a 40 year old man who lives by himself and a 12 year old girl would go down about as well as a porkpie at a Jewish wedding with cries of paedophilia from far and wide. However Leon is just that - a love story, everything else is incidental or situation, and has become a modern classic. What makes this work is that Leon is the 40 year old but appears more naive and childlike, while Mathilda is the grown up in a 12 year old's body - a modern version of Lolita. The love between them is a pure love, like the relationship between two children, where Leon protects Mathilda and cares for her and Mathilda provides a life that fills the cold existence of Leon's hitman-focused lifestyle. Portman is excellent in this role - she has yet to do anything better, Reno is well cast and handles the opening up of his character in a very believable fashion - he is totally convincing as a killer and a nervous child making friends for the first time. Oldman overacts like a madman! If you look closely at his shirt sleeves you'll see his cuff links are actually pineapple rings because he's such a big ham! His performance doesn't sit well beside the others and he seems to be in a different movie at times. However he does bring a cold killer element with it that works well and offsets his eccentricities. A classic love story, look beyond the guns at the two central performances and you'll see one of the most beautiful relationships in modern films. The ending will fill you with happiness and break your heart in equal measure.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
Country: France
Language:
Subtitels: No ()
CDs: 0
| Quality: | Video (?x? @ ?.?? [[unknown] ?kb/s]) | Audio (?Hz ?bit ? chan. [[unknown] ?kb/s]) |
| Actors: | ||
| Jean Reno | as | Leon |
| Gary Oldman | as | Stansfield |
| Natalie Portman | as | Mathilda |
| Danny Aiello | as | Tony |