Nonton film Léon (1994) full movie subtitle Indonesia

Nonton Film Léon (1994) full movie subtitle Indonesia

Review Léon (1994), As the first American big-studio film about a man who dearly loves his houseplant, "The Professional" is bound to raise eyebrows. And raise them on both sides of the Atlantic, since this is the work of the film world's most attention-getting man without a country, Luc Besson.

In "La Femme Nikita," Mr. Besson stylishly melded American luridness with Gallic sophistication, though the violence level was enough to dismay French audiences and prompt a coarse American remake ("Point of No Return"). Emboldened by the success of that hybrid, Mr. Besson has now made a film in New York, featuring characters who speak like Americans, think like Frenchmen and behave appallingly in any language. "The Professional" lacks the sexy elan of "La Femme Nikita" and suffers from infinitely worse culture shock.

The man with the plant is Leon (Jean Reno), a gentle, childlike soul. He lives a quiet life, drinking milk and dusting his plant's leaves. ("It's my best friend," he says about the plant, thus helping more obtuse members of the audience. "Always happy. No questions. It's like me, you see.") He is also seen watching a Gene Kelly movie, which fills him with an innocent delight. How strange it is that he happens to be a paid killer!

By chance, a young girl named Mathilda (Natalie Portman) becomes Leon's soul mate. This wistful, pretty creature is his neighbor in a New York apartment house, one of the many Manhattan locations that Mr. Besson films peculiarly, with a loving attention to other films about New York rather than New York life.

Leon sometimes sees the girl in the hallway, where she sits smoking pensively, wearing the bobbed hair, black choker and striped jersey that make her look like a mini-Parisian streetwalker and certainly like a pederast's delight. "Is life always this hard?" she asks Leon one day. "Or just when you're a kid?"

"Always, I guess," Leon thoughtfully replies.

Mathilda's life becomes hard when her entire sleazy family is rubbed out by Gary Stansfield (Gary Oldman), a fantastically corrupt drug-enforcement agent who says things like "Death is whimsical today." In this preposterous role, Mr. Oldman expresses most of the film's sadism as well as many of its misguidedly poetic sentiments. During the buildup to an ugly shootout, he even claims that the calm before the storm reminds him of Beethoven, a thought that may help viewers get through the nastiness that follows. (Mr. Oldman will actually be playing Beethoven in another, less gun-toting movie, "Immortal Beloved," soon.)

Among the condescending American stereotypes with which Mr. Besson has filled "The Professional" (Danny Aiello plays a mobster who does business out of an Italian restaurant), there are elevating cinematic references. Leon checks into a hotel using the Hitchcockian name MacGuffin. And he is seen playfully imitating John Wayne ("O.K., Peelgreem!").

These touches all underscore the idea that Leon has a true sweetness, and that he and Mathilda can redeem each other with the purity of their platonic love. Although she begs Leon to teach her how to be a hit person, claiming to be interested in "the theory" of such work, "The Professional" is much too sentimental to sound shockingly amoral in the least. Even in a finale of extravagant violence, it manages to be maudlin.

Mr. Reno, who also appeared in "La Femme Nikita" and Mr. Besson's "Subway," plays Leon with a soulful air that overstresses his superiority to a brutish world. Ms. Portman, a ravishing little gamine, poses far better than she acts.

"The Professional" is full of howling mistakes that emphasize its alienness, like the call to Mathilda's incredibly sordid household from the starchy headmistress of the private school Mathilda supposedly attends. Mathilda eventually digs a hole for Leon's houseplant on the school's grounds, giving it symbolic life without realizing it will die in the first frost.

"The Professional" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes a great deal of graphic violence. THE PROFESSIONAL Written and directed by Luc Besson; director of photography, Thierry Arbogast; edited by Sylvie Landra; music by Eric Serra; production designer, Dan Weil; Gaumont/Les Films du Dauphin production, released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 112 minutes. This film is rated R. WITH: Jean Reno (Leon), Gary Oldman (Gary Stansfield), Natalie Portman (Mathilda) and Danny Aiello (Tony).