Leon: The Professional Review

Hey there, glad you stopped by my lens... this is one part of a bigger set of lens I'll be doing as a tribute to the lovely, talented Mrs Natalie Portman. With all the lenses in this series all the proceeds will be donated to charity! Natalie has a huge heart for charity and I thought it would be a cool way to honor her.

I'll try to mix it up with each lens, and for this charity I chose "Save the Children"... the movie dealing with a little girl in trouble I thought it appropriate to have the charity be something that helps children around the world. Check out their overview at Charity Navigator

Without further ado, let's begin...

To begin, this is a quick rundown of the idea behind the film... I'll be sure to avoid the spoilers.

We start with a 12 year old girl named Mathilda. She lives in New York with her unloving family. Her father, who keeps drugs for a crooked cop, Stansfield. After finding out that he was getting some of his drugs stolen decided to murder Mathilda’s entire family. Luckily she was out shopping when the raid happened and when she returns finds shelter with the other main character of the film Leon. Unbeknownst to her, he is a “cleaner” or assassin, which fits Mathilda’s desire for revenge perfectly. This is where I’ll stop and let you find out what happens next :)

One of the most incredible cinema experiences of my life. Gary Oldman gives one of his sharpest performances, which is quite impressive considering his career. Jean Reno is an actor that I'm not completely familiar with but he delivers with the child like manner of Leon with great skill.

The director Luc Besson, who directed another one of my faves "Taken", really announced himself on the big screen with Leon. He also the screen writer, so it's really his vision you see on screen. Something that most people don't know is he started dating a 15 year old in 1991 (he was 32 at the time); this serves as the basis of the relationship Leon and Mathilda. This is one of the most contentious parts of the film for most people (*cough*Americans*cough*) and was cut out of the version that was released in the States.

Let's talk about Natalie's performance. While technically this is not her first acting job (a short named "Developing" was), this is the movie where she burst onto the scene. Setting up what would define the early part of her career as a gifted young actress who generally very mature for their age.

As you can guess this movie goes down into my top 5 favorite films and is my favorite Natalie Portman of all-time (sorry Garden State). While for some it'll be too uncomfortable with the violence and Lolita themes, it's really a very keenly done film. One I believe you will not be disappointed in watching... so what are you waiting for? Figure out someway to watch this movie!

Remember, I do not make any money... it all goes to charity!

shoutout to http://www.reddit.com/user/Sojourner_Truth for making the incredible gifs (the really nice ones) on this lense! Visit reddit.com/r/highqualitygifs for more awesome gif action :)