There's conviction in this movie, and intelligence. It's square, but not in the overstuffed way that StarGate is square. Probably thanks to Natalie Portman, whose film debut this is, Mathilda doesn't come across as a baby Nikita. She has more cause to be vicious and enraged than the nihilistic Nikita did, but she just wants justice though the Besson twist is that she wants revenge for the death of her little brother, not for the murders of her moronic father, stepmother, and stepsister. Besson doesn't overdraw on her cuteness, though he is a little too stuck on Mathilda's romantic yearnings and alienation.
Life gets scarier and more exciting when an outlaw enters the picture.
The Professional keeps going on the power of its performances, but one actor threatens to bring everything crashing down. He was pretty funny as the corrupt, wired sap in last year's Romeo Is Bleeding , but that same oily intensity is used here to try to send shivers up our spines. Oldman is introduced with his back to the camera, a time-honored movie device to establish evil. Besson's characters have names, but they don't really need them. The Hit-Man, The Girl, The Bad Cop.