Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 1 rating
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.
Léon is a stylish neo-noir thriller elevated well above its genre by Besson's kinetic direction and a trio of extraordinary performances. Jean Reno brings quiet, wounded dignity to the title role, Gary Oldman delivers one of cinema's most unhinged villains, and a young Natalie Portman is astonishing in her debut. The cinematography is genuinely distinctive — Besson and Thierry Arbogast craft New York as a grimy yet luminous stage, full of expressive close-ups and propulsive action sequences. Novelty is high: the film's specific combination of brutal hitman mythology, tender found-family drama, and an uncomfortable quasi-romantic undertone between man and child creates something genuinely singular and still unreplicated. The plot, however, leans on familiar revenge and mentor tropes and doesn't fully develop its more interesting ideas, keeping it a notch below exceptional. The ending is emotionally impactful but somewhat abrupt and inevitable, robbing it of full catharsis.