‘Dust Bunny’ Review – Imagination Only Goes So Far In This Léon-Inspired Fantasy Riff

Imagine if Léon the Professional had been told as a fantastical film, then the result would likely be Dust Bunny. Intriguing in concept, Léon is fascinating for its story and characterization. This film lacks both the panache and emotional scope that made Léon memorable. For starters, that film pulls no punches. Dust Bunny plays footsies with being a hard-edged kid’s film, but it’s an action drama that misses the mark on both counts. Grab a dust pin because there is a lot to clean up with this movie.

Aurora’s (Sophie Sloan) mysterious next-door neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) is a hitman; he kills real-life monsters. Auroa has a problem. There are monsters under her bed, and to make matters worse, a monster ate her parents, or so she thinks. She turns to her neighbor and hopes to procure his services to kill the monster. Coincidentally, he suspects her parents fell victim to assassins gunning for him; he is still a hitman after all. Feeling guilty, he takes the job and works to protect her while battling the assassins, and accepts that some monsters are real. 

Dust Bunny exists in the shadow of Léon, with sprinkles of fairy tales of monsters under the bed. There is an inherent cuteness to the story, but it doesn’t last long enough to sustain the premise. Mikkelsen and Sloan are at least charming as a hitman and surrogate daughter. Their banter is lively, particularly when she insists it was a monster, not an assassin, that killed her parents. 

Again, there is a cuteness to this pairing—Mikkelsen as a brutal and cynical hitman, and Sloan as a precocious child. Yet the story is derivative of what we have seen before, and even with a slightly fantastical bent, it plays a worn-out schtick. It attempts to update the 1994 film as much as it idolizes, but leaves one feeling bored. These fantasy elements are nothing more than exaggerated window dressing to justify what feels like a half-hearted reimagining. 

The movie attempts to raise the stakes with additional tension. Sheila Atim plays a social worker who gets caught in the chaos of Aurora and her neighbor’s misadventure. She offers some deft humor to an otherwise bone-dry situation.

In addition, the film boasts supporting performances from Sigourney Weaver and David Dastmalchian. Weaver plays the hitman’s handler, who believes Aurora compromises him after seeing his face. Dastmalchian plays one of the hired guns pursuing Mikkelsen, but, sadly, he is underutilized to our chagrin. There are more stakes to throw along the plot’s path, but the end feels more contrived than noteworthy. These additional elements are not enough to keep the dust bunnies from overwhelming this cluttered and dusty story. The story, such as it is, feels like it is spinning itself into a spider’s web. Does it intend to be a soft, gritty drama, or is this a madcap fantasy spectacle? 

Now there are elements of both a gritty crime drama and a fantasy tale. The problem is that the story never commits enough in either direction. The dream-scape moments are quite astonishing and vivid, yet that runs counter to the otherwise real-world dramatics. The movie wants to be cotton candy with a bite, yet it feels like we’ve gone for the sweet stuff and unintentionally swallowed a box of rocks. 

Now, the bealuging cries by Aurora that there are real monsters under her bed become something of a running joke and a tired battle cry by the end of the film. To its credit, these moments, as mishandled as they appear, are arguably the film’s strongest. Arguably, the element is merely present to be a coping mechanism for a child who lost their parents in a tragedy. No, assassins didn’t kill the folks; the monsters under the bed did. Were we to see the film told entirely through Aurora’s eyes, that might have been a worthy payoff once the real-world elements invade. Even when the real monster, as expected, rears its ugly head, the exhaustion is too much.

Dust Bunny becomes spectacle over substance. And it’s a shame. Mikkelsen, to his credit, is giving it his all as though this were Shakesphere meets The Mechanic. And Sloan is quite good too, and can hold her own against the veteran actor. However, as is often the case, it is never the actor’s fault for a story’s pratfalls. What has imagination and relies on a child’s imagination creates a lot of dust and clutter that is better swept under the bed.

Dust Bunny will debut in theaters on December 12, 2025, courtesy of Roadside Attractions.