Movie · 1994 · Crime, Drama, Action · 1h 51m · R · French
Curator score: 7.6/10 (2.7M ratings)
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Overview
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda's thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon's footsteps.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.6/10
IMDb: 8.5/10
Letterboxd: 4.01/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 8.3/10
Director
Luc Besson
Production
Gaumont, Les Films du Dauphin
Cast
Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello, Peter Appel, Michael Badalucco, Ellen Greene, Elizabeth Regen, Carl J. Matusovich, Eric Challier, Willi One Blood, Don Creech, Keith A. Glascoe, Jernard Burks, Matt De Matt, Frank Senger, Stuart Rudin, Lucius Wyatt Cherokee, Maïwenn, Luc Bernard
Curator Review
Verdict
A stylish, emotionally charged crime thriller with strong performances and memorable set pieces, but its reputation is permanently complicated by the uncomfortable sexualization of Mathilda and the film’s tonal imbalance. If you can separate the craft from the controversy, there is a lot to admire; if not, it’s an easy skip.
Best for
Viewers who want a sleek 90s action-crime movie with a melancholy edge
Fans of intense villain performances and heightened visual style
People interested in early standout performances from young actors
Audiences who can tolerate morally messy, controversial material in older films
Skip if
You are sensitive to age-inappropriate sexualization or power-imbalance dynamics
You prefer grounded crime dramas over stylized, comic-book-like melodrama
You want a film whose emotional center feels fully resolved and unproblematic
You are looking for a pure action movie without troubling subtext
Overview
Luc Besson’s film is built on a simple, potent premise: a lonely professional killer and a child forced into his orbit after a family tragedy. That setup gives the movie a strong emotional engine, and the New York underworld atmosphere, spare visual design, and bursts of violence still land with force. Jean Reno’s quiet presence and Gary Oldman’s manic volatility give the film much of its lasting charge.
Worth noting
But the movie’s legacy is inseparable from the way it frames Mathilda. What begins as a damaged-child revenge story repeatedly drifts into uncomfortable territory, and that tension is not accidental enough to ignore. The film wants the audience to read it as tender, tragic, and cool all at once, yet the result can feel morally and tonally unstable.
Bottom line
As a piece of 90s genre cinema, it remains influential and often gripping. As a viewing experience, it depends heavily on your tolerance for the film’s uglier impulses. The craft is real; so is the discomfort.
Top Letterboxd reviews
isabelle (1★) · 11243 likes
how do i erase a movie from my memory? the sexualization of mathilda made me very uncomfortable and listening to a 12 year old talk about wanting to “have her first time” with a man quadruple her age is disgusting. not even to mention the sex scene in the script that got cut. did some research on luc besson and found out he impregnated a 16 year old while he was 32.... go figure. man i don’t have time for this shit
kayla (4.5★) · 10034 likes
I wonder if Natalie Portman ever thinks about how badass it was that she outacted everyone around her at age 13
Dom (4.5★) · 8279 likes
I was intensely worried throughout for the wellbeing of his plant.
aliyah · 5986 likes
thirteen year old natalie portman accomplished more with this film than i will with my entire life
EDIT: so i got creepy vibes throughout this film and was really uncomfortable with the sexualisation of mathilda. anyway, i just found out that there was a sex scene in the original cut and that the relationship between leon and mathilda was loosely based off of a real relationship that luc besson had which makes me feel sick for putting that aside so… more
kowalski 🫀 (3★) · 5905 likes
if natalie portman wants to kill every man who sexualized her at age 12 she should be allowed to do that