Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 31-July-05
Spoiler Rating: High

The Professional (1994)

How sad it is that I went 11 years without experiencing the great, unique pleasure of Luc Besson's "The Professional." This movie is a little gem, a love story between two characters whose lives might have been lonely and corrupt but instead perfectly illustrate the beauty of human connection.

The title of the movie refers to a phlegmatic loner named Leon (Jean Reno), who has established himself as one of New York City's finest hit men. Working exclusively for a prominent Mafioso (Danny Aiello), Leon kills not for pleasure, riches, or excitement, but because he excels at it and isn't suited for a more interactive profession. (Reno has the ideal face for the role, looking, somewhat paradoxically, like a competent doofus.) Besides his boss and a single friend — a houseplant — Leon's acquaintance includes only one person: the girl next door, Mathilda, who is played by Natalie Portman in a superb debut.

Mathilda is literally a girl, a gangly 12-year-old who welcomes any excuse to escape her abusive sleazebag father and squabbling family. Thus it is that she's away from the apartment when a psychotic drug dealer (Gary Oldman, over-the-top but still charismatic) comes in and murders every person he can find. When Mathilda returns to the scene of the carnage, she applies to Leon as her only hope for protection and guidance. He takes her in with great reluctance, but soon comes to need her as much as she needs him.

While the framework of the story is a bit clichéd (revenge, shoot-outs, cat-and-mouse games between underworld mainstays), the relationship between Leon and Mathilda is not (he respects her almost as an equal and shows no sign of noticing her Lolita-like appeal). Yet despite being both over-likely and unlikely, "The Professional" feels absolutely honest. Even when Leon is teaching his charge the finer points of assassination, the affection between them is palpably sweet. He gives her the few modest things he has to give (a knowledge of weaponry included), and she enables him to feel alive in the way that only kids (even jaded ones) can do. Despite all the violence that defines and threatens their lives, their coming together is an instance of wondrous salvation which a bittersweet ending can't erase. "The Professional" finds drama in the dangerous, seedy side of life as so many modern films do; but unlike most of these films, it truly touches the heart.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.