I've watched "The Professional" a few times but it's been a while since I seen it and so I wanted to watch the film again. TP follows the story of Leon (played by Jean Reno), an italian immigrant turned hitman for Tony, the charmingly, old-school mobster. (played by Danny Aiello) The movie starts off relatively peaceful but picks up from there when at the behest of his 'employer" Tony, Leon systematically kills an entire security team just to warn one gangster that if he dosen't leave town he'll end up dead as well.
Then the movie moves in a different way with us now being introduced to Mathilda(played by Natalie Portman) who shows amazing maturity for a girl that young. And her life with her felonious father, cruel step-mother and despicable sister; it like something from Cinderella. Besson shows amazing balance and eye to detail intersecting both Mathilda's and Leon's story. Leon somewhat like a child especially in the scene where he watches the movie, and Mathilda somewhat like an adult, having to grow up fast with an absent and terrible family life.
TP picks up with the death squad scene where a team of what looks like your usual suspects who are in fact DEA agents. The reason I love this scene is the emergence of Stansfield (played by Gary Oldman). Even though this is the second viewing of Stansfield, I see this scene as more of an detailed introduction as to who and what he is. Both hilarious and psychotic, clever and ruthless, Stansfield is definitely someone you'll see more of throughout the film.
Now I could go on forever about but The Professional is such a good movie you need to see it yourself so go check it out, matter of fact look up Luc Besson, he's an amazing french director with many great films to his resume. Trust me you'll be glad you did.
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