Several weeks ago a guy spotted me reading a comic and chatted me up. Somehow we got on the subject of Star Wars and then Natalie Portman, and he told me he will love and respect her forever because of her role in Leon the Professional, which I'd never heard of. Anyone?
I requested it from the library, and I just finished watching it. My glasses are a disaster, thanks to the little tear explosions. I can't remember the last time I saw something like this, so touching, thrilling and awful all at the same time.
I doubt that I can do any justice here, but I'll try to summarize: Leon is a hit-man who made his way from (I'm guessing from the accent) an Eastern European country to NYC to escape his past. He lives a lonely life in a shabby apartment, working jobs for Danny Aiello and caring devotedly for a potted plant. Natalie Portman is Mathilda, a 12-13 year old girl who lives in the same building as Leon; she lives with her drug-doing/stealing dad and awful step-family, and would be as lonely as Leon if it weren't for her 4 year old brother.
The dad steals drugs he's hiding for crooked DA Gary Oldman, and Oldman and his crew massacre the family--including the baby brother--while Portman is buying groceries. Leon opens his door to her as she returns, and literally saves her life.
The movie becomes a sort of buddy flick, but it's never trite or cheesy. There's some comedy, and lots of action, but Portman and Jean Reno, the guy who plays Leon, help to make this film something much more than that. It's well written, directed and acted. It's interesting (in that way that learning about being a hit-man is interesting), and very stressful. And it's honestly heartbreaking.
I don't think I've seen Portman in anything other than the Star Wars movies, and I can't understand what happened to her between this movie in 1994 and the Phantom Menace five years later. Can puberty really turn an actress to wood?
Anyway, if you get a chance to rent a movie you can watch without little kids around, try this one. And then we can talk about it, because I'm *dying* to!
11 comments:
I remember enjoying the movie but it has been years since I watched it. We can't watch anything without kids around. They're always around. They're like head lice here.
OMG! Flashbacks!
-J.
Have you seen her in Garden State? I thought she was quite good in that one.56tgfcv
A fabulous film!
With killing!
That I have actually watched.
And, yes, as soon as she, uh, matured, she turned to wood.
She was also in Where The Heart is, in which she is pregnant, in a Walmart, and wood.
Hmmm . . . I'm thinking about 1994, and I'm wondering if this came out around the same time as Pulp Fiction. That might explain why I missed it.
I'll probably never see that guy again, but I am forever grateful for his coffee shop recommendation.
And now, I must away to scrub some floors. Don't hate me because I'm a scullery maid.
I will definately scour the clp catalog for this flick!
You can't be a scullery maid unless and until you exclaim in horror: "His Lordship's got the feather duster again!"
-J., who knows these things
ok, i got upset just reading about the little brother dying.
but i'll watch it anyway.
I'm going to see if the library has Closer--thanks for the tip.
And Val, they don't *show* the brother being killed, thank God, so it's sad but endurable.
Joke . . . 'is Lordship's been up to London these past weeks. I haven't seen a feather duster in ages!
Yer dropped yer aitch, lurv.
-J.
I love The Professional -- it was the first movie I ever saw Natalie Portman in -- I need it on dvd.
I couldn't believe she died in Revenge of the Sith over heartbreak from Anakin! Geez! Any woman with any gumption would have at least lived for those kids. Stupid plot device.
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