The Professional

This film first saw full release in the U.S. in 1994 as The Professional. The director was forced to cut 26 minutes at that time in response to audience preview tests. Those 26 minutes have been restored in this version. The story concerns the efforts of Leon (Jean Reno), an Italian hit-man, to cope with the outrageous demands of Mathilda (Nathalie Portman), a precocious pre-teen American girl who comes into his life. In the first place, she wants him to be her sexual and romantic partner. She presses him relentlessly until finally she is permitted to spend the night in bed with him, though she remains unravished. Her second demand, enforced by threats of suicide, is to be trained as a hired assassin. This is something Leon knows how to do, and so she begins her bloody apprenticeship.