Leon

Cast: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello
Director: Luc Besson
Screenplay: Luc Besson
Music: Eric Serra
UK Distributor: Gaumont

Cancel all arrangements, put the cat out and settle back for Leon, one of the greatest movies ever made.

Okay, I'm usually wary of any review that starts with those words. It's usually a recipe for disaster as your expectations are raised to the point where you are bound to be let down by the finished product. In this case, believe the hype.

The story is simple enough though unlikely to ever get cleared by a Hollywood studio on the grounds of its Lolita-like subplot.

Mathilda (Star Wars' Natalie Portman in her big screen debut) is a 12-year-old New York girl who befriends Italian hitman Leon (Jean Reno in arguably his greatest performance).

When her family are wiped out by DEA officers, led by a career-best Gary Oldman, she hires the eponymous assassin to avenge her brother's death.

Written and directed by Gallic genius Luc Besson, the man behind classics such as Nikita and Subway, this was his first English language film and hooks the viewer from the word go.

With an atmospheric score by Eric Serra, New York has never seemed more Continental.

The use of accordion on the soundtrack gives in the feel that this could have been shot in Paris with little harm to the movie and there's a genuine European undertone which is like a breath of fresh air in one of America's most exciting cities.

Although it will lose everything on the small screen, there is a moment when Leon takes Mathilda out onto a rooftop to train her the art of assassination.

The close-up of the pair against the dismal walls of their apartment block is followed by a breathtaking panorama of the Big Apple.

As with any good movie, Leon is made up of such memorable scenes but what carries the film forward is the father-daughter relationship between a woman trapped in a child's body and a child trapped in a man's. Tearing the two apart is Stansfield (Oldman), a Beethoven-loving, pill-popping sleazy officer who brings a degree of ferocity to film rarely seen before or since.

Oldman has always been good value for money, but his unforgettable speeches such as, "I love these quiet moments before the storm," are the equivalent of sending 40,000 volts from the TV set into the viewer.

Luc Besson was so impressed with the actor he signed him on the spot for his big budget fantasy adventure, The Fifth Element, and decided to co-produce his stunning directorial debut, Nil By Mouth.

Okay, enough gushing - what's bad about it?

Well, Mathilda's guardians come across like cartoon characters, but then again, so do many villains in real life so you can forgive their lack of depth.

As with Goldeneye and The Fifth Element, the closing track by Eric Serra is also hideous but at least you can turn off by that point.

There is also one major drawback with this version: It's not the director's cut which has just been released in this US to critical acclaim.

I was lucky enough to see the Japanese import earlier in the year and although it fleshes out the relationship between Leon and Mathilda to a very dubious degree, there's no doubt that the 'version integrale', as the art house fans like to call it, is far superior.

All the characters are more rounded and there is one scene in which Portman and Reno get drunk in a restaurant which is little short of hilarious.

Whichever version you see, be it this TV offering, a big screen print or the DVD version, there's no doubt that Besson has created a masterpiece that took a simple thriller and gave it a heart, then proceeds to break yours by the time the closing credits roll.

© 2000 Roger Crow

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