This film is not a masterpiece, and even if you remove the fact that it has some extremely disturbing scenes where the goal clearly was to sexualise a minor for no reason, the film has little to offer and is deeply flawed.
The only good think to point out is the acting by Gary Oldman; as with all his roles, he does a great job of playing an unhinged DEA agent.
Moving on to the plotline. It's garbage. A corrupt group of DEA agents, headed by Oldman, proceed to kill a family in their apartment as the father has been cutting up their drugs. How are they able to get away with such blatant murder? Unclear. Why are they doing this? Unclear. Why does Oldman take a pill, and what is it, before he kills? No idea. Will we learn anything about this group before or after they're killed? No, no you will not.
The reality is that the storyline is a romance between a middle aged man and an 11 year old girl. At the time of filming, Natalie Portman was 11, and this is also very clear with how she looks and acts (FYI: not very well). While people say the romance is not reciprocal and is therefore acceptable, the romance is is indeed reciprocal. In one extremely unsettling scene where 11 yr old Natalie Portman asks Leon to take her virginity, his reason he won't is because he'd be bad at it. Not the fact that she's 11, but he'd be bad at it. That is the sort of paedophilic wet-dream content found in this film that somehow managed to get past everyone, yet Cuties is apparently socially unacceptable.
A good comparison to see how deeply wrong Leon is, is to compare it to American Beauty. When Lester realises that Angela is a virgin, his fatherly instincts kick in and he becomes protective of her, realising that she is a vulnerable young girl and not something sexual. Leon on the other hand buys a dress for Portman who then tries to seduce him with said dress. Plus, throughout the entire film she is dressed like a hooker. Why is she dressed like that? No idea, no explanation is given.
In short, even if you were to change Natalie Portman's age to something appropriate/legal, it would still be a bad film with a poor script and lazy plot. Though given how heavily and deliberately it sexualises a minor, Leon: the Professional is clearly just the product of a paedophilic mind trying to pass the film off as something else than a twisted romance between a minor and middle aged, socially awkward man.
The only good think to point out is the acting by Gary Oldman; as with all his roles, he does a great job of playing an unhinged DEA agent.
Moving on to the plotline. It's garbage. A corrupt group of DEA agents, headed by Oldman, proceed to kill a family in their apartment as the father has been cutting up their drugs. How are they able to get away with such blatant murder? Unclear. Why are they doing this? Unclear. Why does Oldman take a pill, and what is it, before he kills? No idea. Will we learn anything about this group before or after they're killed? No, no you will not.
The reality is that the storyline is a romance between a middle aged man and an 11 year old girl. At the time of filming, Natalie Portman was 11, and this is also very clear with how she looks and acts (FYI: not very well). While people say the romance is not reciprocal and is therefore acceptable, the romance is is indeed reciprocal. In one extremely unsettling scene where 11 yr old Natalie Portman asks Leon to take her virginity, his reason he won't is because he'd be bad at it. Not the fact that she's 11, but he'd be bad at it. That is the sort of paedophilic wet-dream content found in this film that somehow managed to get past everyone, yet Cuties is apparently socially unacceptable.
A good comparison to see how deeply wrong Leon is, is to compare it to American Beauty. When Lester realises that Angela is a virgin, his fatherly instincts kick in and he becomes protective of her, realising that she is a vulnerable young girl and not something sexual. Leon on the other hand buys a dress for Portman who then tries to seduce him with said dress. Plus, throughout the entire film she is dressed like a hooker. Why is she dressed like that? No idea, no explanation is given.
In short, even if you were to change Natalie Portman's age to something appropriate/legal, it would still be a bad film with a poor script and lazy plot. Though given how heavily and deliberately it sexualises a minor, Leon: the Professional is clearly just the product of a paedophilic mind trying to pass the film off as something else than a twisted romance between a minor and middle aged, socially awkward man.