A couple of minutes researching into Luc Besson, the director, will give you some insight.

Yep, you're not the only one, regarding the relationship in that movie. Turns out Besson is a creepy, fucked-up dude.

Whatever you do, don't read the original script. a lot of it was cut out.

Including a scene where Mathilde naked in the bathroom after a shower, Leon walks in and hands her a towel.

Another scene were Mathilde seduces Leon and he's not able to say no and they have sex.

There is also an "International Cut" of the movie where their relationship is fleshed out more.

The Professional (1994) is probably the only film I know where I actually preferred the version re-edited for the American market. It was less plodding, and it kept the symbiotic relationship of two very lonely people who had been violently let down and abandoned by humanity while minimizing the creepier aspects of Leon (1994). I saw the original version, Leon, years after The Professional and I felt the more overt sexualizing of these two paradoxical innocents was creepy and stomach turning. Some may accuse me of American puritanism, but I'll stand my ground that in Leon, it went too far. I also felt a little bewildered that while Portman had received a lot of sexualized harassment when she was still a child, much of it likely in response to this role, she then came to the defense of Roman Polanksy's facing his rape charges involving a very young girl. Though looking this up, I've just found that Portman has since publicly apologized and regretted signing the petition in his defense.

EDIT: I haven't seen either version in decades, seeing the OP's title "Leon: The Professional", I'm realizing there may be other versions I'm not aware of.

Besson clearly was full of issues but it's a good movie so bygones.

It is very problematic and n portman has had to deal with sexualization in her career. She was also in another movie, girls?, where they had her as a young object of desire. If you want a deep dive on that subject in general there is a short podcast called Lolita Podcast.

People keep posting about this movie on this sub just so people can say its creepy and the director is a pedo. It seems like there have been dozens of posts about this.

Personally I think the movie does get a little questionable at parts, but never crosses a line. Maybe the director wanted things to go further, but other people involved in the movie prevented that from happening.

Putting all that aside, its a good movie.

I remember at the time of its release having heard plenty of conversations about the age controversy

I think the comments cover Besson's personal issues thoroughly so I won't reiterate, but will assume the reader is aware.

It's also been noted here that there are multiple versions: Leon (International), The Professional (American), and Leon: The Professional (Extended/DVD). And I think each is defensible as the 'definitive' version but I tend to prefer the Extended because the severity of it has an added value. There's no mistaking it for revenge fantasy.

For the purpose of comparison, consider Hit Girl avenging Big Daddy in Kick Ass. She is far more active in the violence than Mathilde is every version of Leon combined*.* Yet that movie is able to treat it as fantasy, escapist. Not to knock it, the bad guys get what they deserve and it's fun. But, I've never thought that's what Besson was after and I tend to think the international and extended editions emphasize that intention more than the American.

I think you'd be more forgiven for watching the American version and thinking "the paedo is trying to get away with something." But the more salacious cuts have a way of implicating the audience more than the author. That the camera treats her like an adult emphasizes how she's been robbed of innocence. We can see the vast disparity between how she sees herself and how we see her.

So while I understand why and how people are uncomfortable, I believe that discomfort was always the intention and have never really thought that Besson was broadcasting his own preferences--so to speak.

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I watched it recently for the first time and was pretty surprised at how much they focused on her sexuality. She was usually wearing revealing clothes and obviously tried to have sex with him. I just tried to keep an open mind as to why the creators would make those choices. Maybe the director is just a perve, but I wondered if it was meant to show how the girl was an orphan from a broken home whose best example of love was from older women. She was imitating what she had seen with the only human still around. She had grown up in that tiny apartment and probably seen sex before. Her older sister had introduced her to celebrities like Madonna, who were very sexual. She was a kid imitating what was around her. Her parents didn’t seem like the best people so she was probably never loved like a child should experience.

I could be way off but those were my thoughts. But I thought they maybe went a little far trying to make her sexually attractive.

I remember thinking the Leon/Mathilda relationship was odd. Then I saw an extended cut and it was flat out pedo creepy. Besson is a creepy groomer. It kind of ruined the movie for me. I can’t even watch the American edit.

Nah dude it’s super disgusting and only a certain type of people wouldn’t say so out loud.

What’s being implied in the movie is one thing, but in real life a very young Natalie Portman was made to do those scenes in front of grown men and that’s even more sickening tbh. Those aspects of the movie are so off putting that I will likely never watch it again and I’d definitely never recommend to anyone either. Somebody should have done a better job looking out for her at such a young age

It was a product of its time.

Creepy? How?