THE PROFESSIONAL
A film review by Bryam Youngsur Lim
Copyright 1994 Bryam Youngsur Lim
Just saw THE PROFESSIONAL. This should've been a really good movie, as we all know Besson is a certifiable genius. The movie has a nice beginning, but that's about all I can say in defense of it.
There's some really poorly handled Lolita-isms with the little girl. Not that I have a problem with the little girl-older man thing, if it's handled well like in THE LOVER (and I'm not just talking about the gratuitous nudity), but in this movie you never really understand what's going on, and you get the impression that Mr. Besson is really into seeing young girls in slutty clothes.
The action sequences are *incredible*. As perhaps the biggest Woo fan I know, these sequences come damn close. Unfortunately, they're too short, and you only get this tiny window into what could have been. It's just not gratifying, as they're entirely too infrequent.
Milk. Milk is this strange recurring motif in the movie, a pretty lame motif, too. Perhaps it's supposed to inspire this sense of growth or some crap like that, but I didn't dig it. Also, there's a plant which is really over- emphasized.
And, last but not least, the film is set in Brooklyn. I don't care if he's French, Besson should have the good sense not to set a film here because, with some obvious exceptions, Brooklyn is just too cliche and a tad too tacky. I always think of that crappy Seagal flick and how he's buddies with the pizza kitchen owner who Knows-How-Things-Work.
I'm open to discussion on this topic, because I really *wanted* this movie to be great and to me, it wasn't. A real waste of two great actors (Jean Reno and Gary Oldman), too.
Bryan.
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