The Natalie Portman Film You May Not Have Seen.

“The Professional” - A professional killer, Leon (Jean Reno), takes in a 12 year old girl, Mathilda (Natalie Portman), after her family is killed. She becomes enamored of him and asks him to teach her how to kill in order to get revenge for her family’s death.

5 Cool Stars
5 Bizarre Relationship Stars
4 Intense Violence Stars
4 Great Cast Stars

How badly do I think you should see it? Well, if you dig crude violence (“Boondock Saints,” “Desperado,” and “Pulp Fiction” style films) then you should like this. Warning: the child girl character is hitting on this 40 or 50 something man. Nothing actually happens, but don’t want you to see it if you don’t want to watch even the suggestion of that. I really liked it.

I was absolutely stunned at the performance of Natalie Portman in “Closer.” I was stunned at her capacity to move from what I thought was the rather shallow/sweet character from “Where the Heart Is” to the dubious, emotional, stripper, “Alice.” But, last night I saw the movie, “The Professional” and found that Natalie Portman’s base comes from a darker perspective of life. It was shocking, but, wow, it was cool.

Besides having a great cast (also including Michael Gambon), the story is provocative and entertaining. Has some weakness in the flow of the story, but overall the performances of the cast make this film a fantastic watch.