Movies I Love, Part X: The Professional

Posted: September 7th, 2008 | Filed under: Cinema, Culture, Ruminations | No Comments »

I begin this little recommendation rather sheepishly. You see, the film I’m about to fawn over — “The Professional” — centers on the life of an assassin.

Frankly, I’m tired of movies that have turned assassins into Capraesque characters to be admired, worthy of our accolades and appreciation. I’ve railed against them early and often on my weekly WFPK 91.9 film reviews. These are characters, after all, who kill other people as their profession.

That said, the film babe and I happened upon this Luc Besson flick the other night on cable. I had seen it, remembered the gist of it, but forgotten many of its, ahem, charms. She had not experienced it before.

After it all played out on the screen, she said to me, “what a sweet but disturbing film.”

Exactly.

Before directing this, Besson had grabbed our attention with “La Femme Nikita.” It was about, well, an assassin. Of course. But that one was also a babe. She wore stilettos and was trés chic. He also made the eminently interesting sci fi comedy called “The Fifth Element.”

Anyway, “The Professional.”

Jean Reno is a simple man who loves his house plant. He comes to New York City, goes to work for smarmball Danny Aiello as a “cleaner.” You know what I’m talking about. He lives in a hovel of an apartment building. Next door is a skanky family — Mom the hooker, Dad the nogoodnick drug dealer, a son and two daughters.

Dad made a bad business decision, so guys he’s double-crossed come to terminate him and his loved ones. With extreme prejudice. It’s a bloodbath. Leader of that pack of scalawags is renegade DEA agent played with over the top, scenery chewing panache by Gary Oldman. Nobody does it better.

The only family member who survives is Mathilda. She’s played by then 13 year old Natalie Portman, in the role that blasted her into the consciousness of the cinematic universe. Precocious. Oh my, yes.

Reno watches the bloodbath through his keyhole. Portman convinces him to take her in when her family is gone. They bond.

It’s all improbable.

It’s too sweet to be grounded in any reality that is plausible.

Like I said, Reno plays his hired gun with too much sensitivity. Portman is way too mature for her tender years. Their relationship while totally platonic is still disturbing.
But, inexplicably, it all works.

At times, it is really funny. Especially when Oldman is on the screen, far too engaging for such a scary character, yet fun to watch. Reno is suitably mysterious. And sensitive. And simple-minded. Portman reminds why she was so heralded. (Remember this was before she got stuck in those stupid George Lucas headdresses with the insipid dialog and wooden scene structure that always plagued the “Star Wars” phenomenon.)

So, with apologies for the bloodshed, and for turning a killer into a hero, I have extolled the virtues of “The Professional.”

Sometime you simply have to move beyond political correctitude.

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