By Nik Rasmussen– It’s time to lock your doors, close the blinds, grab a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show. This is Morningside movie reviews, the only place you can find real movies instead of digging through crap; so sit back, relax and let it happen: MOVIE TIME!!!
Luc Besson, known for such films as the Fifth Element, Nikita and this year’s blockbuster Lucy, introduced us to “Leon The Professional” in 1994. In little Italy of the city of New York, an Italian hit man (Jean Reno, Crimson Rivers) who has always lived by the rules saves a little girl next door (Natalie Portman, Star Wars I-III) from a group of crooked cops (led by Gary Oldman, Batman Begins). The next morning, the two begin a relationship as a professional and a protégée. It’s a tale of forbidden love, revenge and the secret life as an assassin.
This is a story that starts off in a mellower tone than most tales of revenge. Watching this story, I felt like I was looking at a painting rather then just a pattern of dialog and random violence. The struggle had meaning and purpose that isn’t found in a lot of films today. As I watched these two people share with one another, the cruel world around them seemed to fade like tunnel vision.
The message that I walked away from this film was that no matter how dark our world is there always some glimmer of happiness. With that happiness constantly on the edge of death, I found myself on the edge of my seat, caring whether these two people survived the crappy situation a couple of greedy egoists placed them in. This film isn’t a blood fest or a conflict of feelings that leaves the viewer depressed in the end. Leon The Professional forces the viewer to question the meaning of their own life and whether he or she is living the life they truly want to live.
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