100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #3
3. Mathilda Lando, as seen in Leon (sometimes called The Professional), portrayed by Natalie Portman
Revenge movies are par for the course in Hollywood, but a revenge movie about a 12-year-old girl who decides to become a professional assassin after her parents are murdered? Not quite as common. And Mathilda is more than just a typical "action girl."
Mathilda wants to avenge her baby brother's death, nothing more. She isn't a particularly beautiful girl or overtly talented; she asks Leon to teach her to become "a cleaner" and throws herself into it. You get a much better overall picture of Mathilda if you watch the director's cut, which features all the "unlikable" things that didn't test well with audiences: her acting as a co-conspirator on hits, an increasing lack of empathy, a scene with further muddies the waters about the precise nature of Mathilda's relationship with Leon.
Mathilda believes she loves Leon, getting gratitude and respect all twisted up with desire; even though she is 12, Mathilda recognizes that there aren't other people like her, that Leon is the closest thing to a kindred spirit she might find. And, as potentially squirm worthy as this subplot is, it also reinforces the fact that Mathilda is 12-years-old; she lacks the self-awareness and understanding that what she feels for Leon isn't really love and it makes her more relatable for it.
But, most of all, when her brother has been avenged and she has lost Leon as well, Mathilda simply returns to her previous life as if nothing happened at all, everything neatly compartmentalized.
And that's pretty kick-ass.
Previous Kick-Ass Ladies
1. Wendy Moira Angela Darling (Peter Pan) 2. Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Revenge movies are par for the course in Hollywood, but a revenge movie about a 12-year-old girl who decides to become a professional assassin after her parents are murdered? Not quite as common. And Mathilda is more than just a typical "action girl."
Mathilda wants to avenge her baby brother's death, nothing more. She isn't a particularly beautiful girl or overtly talented; she asks Leon to teach her to become "a cleaner" and throws herself into it. You get a much better overall picture of Mathilda if you watch the director's cut, which features all the "unlikable" things that didn't test well with audiences: her acting as a co-conspirator on hits, an increasing lack of empathy, a scene with further muddies the waters about the precise nature of Mathilda's relationship with Leon.
Mathilda believes she loves Leon, getting gratitude and respect all twisted up with desire; even though she is 12, Mathilda recognizes that there aren't other people like her, that Leon is the closest thing to a kindred spirit she might find. And, as potentially squirm worthy as this subplot is, it also reinforces the fact that Mathilda is 12-years-old; she lacks the self-awareness and understanding that what she feels for Leon isn't really love and it makes her more relatable for it.
But, most of all, when her brother has been avenged and she has lost Leon as well, Mathilda simply returns to her previous life as if nothing happened at all, everything neatly compartmentalized.
And that's pretty kick-ass.
Previous Kick-Ass Ladies
1. Wendy Moira Angela Darling (Peter Pan) 2. Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)