Thirty years ago this week, Léon: The Professional made its American debut with a modest $5.3 million opening weekend toward a $19 million run in North America. But internationally, The Professional was a monster hit with $380 million worldwide. On home video and cable, it had an even bigger impact for its stars and for director/screenwriter Luc Besson.
Over time, The Professional has been considered one of the greatest action films ever made. And in that regard, it really holds up well after three decades. However, The Professional has also been reevaluated in that timeframe because of the disturbing overtones in the relationship between Léon and Matilda, a 12-year-old girl he takes under his wing while teaching her how to become a killer. It’s the kind of thing that would get this movie canceled in today’s climate, and it’s also hard to look past that when doing a retrospective about it.
That’s why The Professional has such a complicated legacy. Are the great parts of this movie enough to negate its truly cringey moments? It’s time to find out.
Jean Wick
Jean Reno has been making French movies for the better part of five decades, but Léon: The Professional was the film that elevated him to an international star and helped him gain a foothold in the American movie industry. It’s not unlike the way John Wick completely reinvented Keanu Reeves as an action icon. Ironically, at 46-years-old, Reno was four years younger in The Professional than Reeves was in John Wick.
Léon lives up to his billing from the title. He is the consummate professional when it comes to killing people. He has a code about not murdering women or children, and he’s ruthlessly efficient about dispatching everyone else. The only thing Léon cares about is a house plant that he carries with him, at least until he lets Matilda into his heart. Then he becomes more than just a killer. To this girl, he’s a hero.
A star is born
Natalie Portman made her big-screen debut in The Professional as Matilda, the young girl at the heart of the movie. Three decades later, we know that Portman has become a major player in the entertainment industry, including a recent leading role in Apple TV+’s Lady in the Lake. But it was also obvious from this movie that she was going to be a big star. At only 12 years old, Portman had a great screen presence, and her complicated relationship with her family is conveyed long before she explains it to Léon.
Matilda may want more from Léon than he can give her, but she takes his lessons seriously and openly states that she wants to be a cleaner (contract killer) like him. Given the way this film plays out, that does seem like the natural outcome for her character. As good as Reno is in his role, Portman carries The Professional on her young shoulders.
Gary Oldman gives a bonkers performance
The man that Matilda has undying hatred for is Norman Stansfield, as played by Gary Oldman in one of his most over-the-top performances. During his first scene in the movie, when one of Stansfield’s associates tells Matilda’s father (Michael Badalucco) that Norman can sniff out a lie, he actually sniffs around his face as if that helps him determine the truth. It’s super weird and creepy.
Stansfield also proves to be a more competent bad guy than most, as he figures out that Matilda is stalking him inside the police station and he sets a trap for her. He even relishes Matilda’s fear and doesn’t hide the fact that he intends to kill her before he is called away to deal with Léon’s actions. Late in the film, Stansfield is also the lone cop who doesn’t fall for Léon’s ruse, and he comes this close to getting away with everything he’s done. Stansfield is a fantastic villain, but he still gets what’s coming to him.
The action is terrific
This movie was also a breakthrough for Besson, largely because the action was incredibly well-staged and choreographed. The Professional isn’t a movie that has action scenes every five minutes, but the scenes it does have carry the maximum impact. Léon is such a skilled killer that he doesn’t need much time to strike during the early scenes. It’s only in the climatic battle that Léon faces overwhelming odds, and the action is incredibly exciting to watch.
Besson’s eye for details and the way he filmed his action scenes felt unique and innovative, especially compared to a lot of Hollywood movies from that era. Although Besson had already demonstrated his control of the screen in La Femme Nikita in 1990, The Professional paved the way for him to make The Fifth Element, Lucy, Anna, and more.
The sexual overtones haven’t aged well
In the picture above, Léon is slack-jawed in shock because Matilda has just come out of the bedroom dressed like Madonna while singing Like a Virgin to him. The scanty clothing that Portman wears in this scene would have been fine for a grown woman, but not for a 12-year-old girl. Even 30 years after the fact, it doesn’t feel right to post a picture of young Natalie Portman that way. Immediately after this, Matilda dresses up like Marilyn Monroe and it has the same effect on Léon. The only humorous part of this moment is that Léon doesn’t know who either Madonna or Monroe are, so the references are lost on him.
There are multiple scenes where Matilda professes her love for Léon, which he refuses to acknowledge for what they are. He only tells her he loves her during their last scene together, and that’s his way of saying goodbye. Regardless, the whole dynamic between them is kind of messed up even with his refusal to sexually engage her.
The actress who goes by Maïwenn has a small part in the film, and she was also Besson’s wife at the time when she was only 16 years old. In 2012, Maïwenn told The Washington Post that she met Besson when she was 12, and that The Professional was inspired by their own relationship. Those comments add context to the movie that only makes the Léon and Matilda dynamic even more disturbing.
“It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made, and it gave me my career,” said Portman during a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “But it is definitely, when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it’s complicated for me.”
Will there be a sequel called Matilda: The Professional?
The short answer is no. The long answer is the same, but there’s an explanation attached. Because Portman went on to greater stardom, and Léon: The Professional was so beloved, the natural inclination from fans was that she should headline her own sequel about a now grown Matilda who has become an assassin years after her time with Léon. Sequels have happened from far worse ideas, but one of the reasons why this one never materialized is that Besson left Gaumont Film Company to create his own studio, EuropaCorp. Since then, Gaumont has refused to give up the rights to allow a sequel to be made.
In 2010, producer Olivier Megaton told Screen Rant that Besson actually wrote a script for Matilda. But since Gaumont retains ownership of the characters, he reworked that story into Colombiana, his 2011 action thriller starring Zoe Saldaña.
Even if the stars aligned and Besson were allowed to revisit Matlida and the world he created, it seems unlikely that Portman would return. In the THR interview linked above, Portman expressed her dismay that Besson has been accused of sexual misconduct. And while the actress didn’t say that she would never work with Besson again, she certainly doesn’t have any reason to now.
It’s probably for the best. Not every movie needs a sequel. And Léon: The Professional was very much a product of its time. But only of that time.
Watch Léon: The Professional on Tubi.
