Leon (1994) – Film Review

Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman
Certificate: 18
By Sarah Morgan
Can it really be more than 30 years since Leon was launched on an unsuspecting world?
Apparently so. Blimey, how time flies. The great news is, however, it still looks as fresh and new as it did back then.
For the uninitiated, the film introduces us to the title character, a man who says little; his actions speak louder than words – and his actions usually result in somebody’s death. Leon is an assassin with Italian heritage plying his trade in New York. Apart from the odd hit, he lives a quiet life, drinking lots of milk in his tiny, rundown apartment.
Living next-door is a dysfunctional family; the father is a decidedly dodgy character, and his latest act of mischief has landed him in big trouble. A group of men arrive and kill the lot of them, apart from 12-year-old Mathilda, who was fetching groceries at the time of their arrival.
“Streetwise and tough”
She persuades Leon to take her in against his better judgement. He reluctantly hides her from the killers, who turn out to be crooked cops, and slowly, the pair grow close, offering each other the companionship they had been sorely missing.
Leon also begins teaching Mathilda the skills of his trade so that she can take revenge on the men who murdered her relations.
Most of the attention on the film’s release was on the young Natalie Portman’s incredible performance as Mathilda, and rightly so. It’s a wonderfully mature approach to a character who has been forced to become streetwise and tough due to her background – she was largely neglected by her self-centred parents – and by the experiences she has while under Leon’s care.
But Jean Reno deserves the same plaudits. Although a French cinema veteran at the time, few outside the country would have been aware of him, unless they were fans of writer-director Luc Besson.
The pair had previously worked together on the likes of Subway, The Big Blue and La Femme Nikita, so Besson, who also made Leon, clearly knew that Reno had the right qualities to make his oddly childlike, naive and quiet assassin both believable and sympathetic.
“Heightened world”
Gary Oldman also appears as the leader of the crooked cops. His over-the-top performance shouldn’t work, and yet somehow it fits perfectly in the heightened world created by Besson.
Some have since criticised the film for the relationship between Leon and Mathilda, claiming it’s too close to being a romance, but that’s pushing it a little. It’s true that she does start by trying to attract him, but that signifies the way she’s been brought up and the poor example she’s been set during her young life.
For me, Leon remains one of the best thrillers of the mid-1990s, one I don’t think I’ll ever tire of watching.
Special features include interviews with members of the crew, but it’s the film that remains the main attraction.
Special Features:
- Both director’s cut and theatrical version of the movie
- New Andre Labbouze, technical director – 10 min
- New Thierry Arbogast, cinematographer – 20 min
- New Sylvie Landra, film editor – 30 min
- New Alain Kruger, journalist – 15 min
Leon: The Definitive Edition is released on 4K by Studiocanal