La Femme Nikita (1990) Vs The Point of No Return (1993)

 

In film school, I researched the French film movement known as Cinema Du Look. It was a more modernized version of the French New Wave set for the 80s and 90s, with distinct art pop music video-like visuals. The most popular of these films was La Femme Nikita, directed by Luc Besson. Now, just like I said about Roman Polanski, Luc Besson is a bit of a weirdo, but that's not the main topic. After all, I'm only focusing on his directing style, which is pretty iconic. Though there is no denying that Le Femme Nikita is a kickass film. From the screenplay, the performances, the action sequences, and the visuals. Everything about this movie just works.

What I liked about La Femme Nikita was that it didn't go by the usual cliched tropes associated with most female-driven action films. Nikita isn't this overpowered Mary-Sue. She's not overly confident, not highly skilled, nor is she highly moral either. She's a flawed character with a fully realized story arc. It starts with her being this teen junkie who kills a cop in cold blood and soon gets tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by lethal injection. But there's a twist. A government agency, known as The Centre,  fakes her death to recruit her as an assassin. 

Nikita undergoes genuine character development, getting to experience a new chance at life, but at a great cost. She has to kill to get by, and the whole conflict of the movie is that Nikita is a reluctant participant. 

The most riveting part of La Femme Nikita is the underlying sexual tension Nikita has with her very sexy instructor, Bob. Although it's hinted that they might consummate their feelings, Nikita's resentment of him prevents that.

When she's finally allowed to experience the outside world, Nikita moves on to date and later gets engaged to Marco, a humble grocery store cashier. This is one of the best examples of a love triangle put on screen because Bob and Marco represent the crossroads of Nikita's life. Bob represents danger and mystery, while Marco represents normalcy and stability. Therefore, this serves a narrative purpose rather than a run-of-the-mill romantic storyline. 

For instance, Bob arrives at their apartment unceremoniously with an ever-growing tension between the three of them. Bob softens the blow by introducing himself as a distant family member of Nikita and tells a very visceral account of her "childhood" days. This ultimately wins Marco over, and Bob rewards them with a trip to Venice...but with a cost. It's all fun and romantic bliss, but this turns out to be a ploy for Bob to give Nikita another "assassination assignment," which was very cruel by the way. Maybe he's jealous?

Nikita is not having it, and she confronts Bob for his trickery. But first, she has to look good doing it, and boy, does she pull it off. Anne Palluriud is dynamite, absolutely stunning! This is one of my favorite outfits in the movie, and it really gives off that art pop feel of the Cinema Du Look culture.

Bob eventually gives in and promises Nikita that the next assignment will be her last. This turns out to be one of her most risky and dangerous missions yet. 

Everything went well at first, where Nikita and an accomplice are assigned to steal some secret documents held by The Ambassador, but The Ambassador cannot be hurt. Everything goes well when Nikitia knocks The Ambassador out by forcing him with a sleeping drug while her accomplice puts on a disguise of The Ambassador. But at the very last minute, The Division finds out that The Ambassador uses a password with his guards every day, and he usually changes it. This is a major screwup on The Division's part, and Nikita's accomplice panics, prompting The Centre to call in "The Cleaner."

Here's where the special guest star comes in. Jean Reno, a staple of the Cinema Du Look movement, stars as Victor the Cleaner. He's more like the unstable, unhinged version of his character, Leon from Leon the Professional, another famous Cinema Du Look film also directed by Besson and also starring a young Natalie Portman in her first role. Victor is sent in to clean up the mess that The Centre made for themselves, but the thing about Victor is that he's a bit gun-crazy and isn't afraid to shoot anybody in his way, even if it's his own colleagues. So, Victor comes to dispose of the bodies left behind and... turns out, The Ambassador is still alive, suffocating and melting from the dissolving liquid. Nikita's accomplice is still freaking out and in a moment of a panic, he stupidly pulls out a gun at Victor, which prompts Victor to instally shoot him. With time running out, he forces Nikita to finish the mission, and soon Nikita takes the place of her recently deceased accomplice, dressing up as The Ambassador and sneaks in to steal the secret documents. Now the mission would've gone smoothly if it weren't for Victor's recklessness. Every time a guard stops to question him, he shoots them...just because. This sort of explains how Victor is not as competent as he comes off. Of course, the mission goes awry, and the armed guards begin forcing their way to them. Victor, being the idiot that he is, starts shooting back, not only getting himself killed, but almost getting Nikita killed in the process.

Thankfully, Nikita flees the scene unscathed. After her ordeal, Nikita takes a long, hot shower, as she should, and confesses to Marco about her secret life and that she stole some documents that could put her in jeopardy. Being the understanding boyfriend that he is, Marco supports her. The two of them make love for one last time before Nikita goes on the run. 

In the final scene, Bob comes to find Nikita and informs Marco that he must know about her whereabouts because of the stolen documents from The Embassy. Although Marco refuses to put Nikita under the bus, Marco hands the documents over to Bob. Soon, the two men come to realize that Nikita might never come back, and they agree that they'll both miss her deeply. 

So that was La Femme Nikita and it's definitely not only a Cinema Du Look classic but also a classic in the French action genre. Inevitably, a remake was underway. First, it was remade as a Hong Kong action film called Black Cat, but the most egregious and the one I'll be mostly focusing on is:

The Point of No Return, directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda.

Now, on paper, this seems like a good idea. You have John Badham, a director known for making classic films such as Saturday Night Fever, Dracula, Blue Thunder, WarGames, Short Circuit, and Stakeout, and then you have Bridget Fonda, who was a rising star at the time. Between the late 80s and early 90s, Hollywood had this trend of remaking popular French films, and La Femme Nikita just happened to be one of them. The result...not so great. 

Everything subtle about the original is cranked up to eleven. For instance, let's examine the two opening scenes:

The opening scene in the original film fades into a quiet, desolate street, setting the atmosphere. The intense yet subtle rock'n' roll music score elevates the rising tension as the camera focuses on the gang of hoodlums going on a robbing spree. Again, it's the buildup, the anticipation that makes the scene engaging. Then, once the opening reaches its boiling point, it totally pays off, breaking out into a chaotic frenzy with the police shootout and then slowing back down when Nikita commits her crime. It's truly an achievement.

The opening scene in The Point of No Return, however, is very OVERWHELMING. A lot is going on. There are helicopters, police sirens, people yelling and screaming, not to mention the janky camera edits that keep things out of focus, which makes it hard to tell what's going on. The music score is your typical 90s heavy metal, complete with a female vocalist doing her "oohs" and "ahhs". It's all very generic. The music score was made by Hans Zimmer, and he can be hit or miss sometimes, but this score in particular is probably his weakest.

Then there's Bridget Fonda in the lead role as Maggie/Nina. Although Fonda is a decent actress, I do not buy her as this wayward drug addict turned trained assassin. I think this type of role would've fit well with somebody like Angelina Jolie or a Gina Gershon; a kind of actress that has a "bad girl" edge to her. Bridget Fonda gives more of a Girl Next Door vibe. To further my comparisons to the original and remake, in the 1990 version, the filmmakers went out of their way to make Anne Palluriud really grungy-looking, and once she gets the makeover, the change in her appearance is very effective. But in The Point of Return, there's not much of a difference with Bridget Fonda's appearance. All they do is give her a black wig, no makeup, with a few cuts on her face, and unflattering clothing. That's it. There's nothing that awestruck about her makeover either. The winged hairstyle doesn't really make me believe that she's turned into a dangerous woman; nothing about it screams "mysteriously enticing." Of course, Bridget Fonda is good with what she's given, but I thought she played it a bit too safe in my opinion. It's not as raw and complex as Anne Palluriud's performance. 

Gabriel Byrne as Bob didn't cut it for me. Again, his performance wasn't bad, but it was very phoned in. Now, Gabriel Byrne is a handsome man, but he just doesn't have sex appeal. The actor who played Bob in the original had a quiet, suave, mysterious allure to him, which added to his sex appeal, whereas Gabriel Byrne comes off as a concerned dad.

The chemistry between Bridget Fonda and Gabriel Byrne is so non-existent. It's not steamy, not spicy, and really doesn't get that push and pull that was palpable between Nikita and Bob from the original.

The chemistry between her and Dermont Mulroney was much more believable in my opinion. This time, his name is J.P., who is a landlord and part-time photographer. Her romance with J.P. was a lot more invested and spicy, and is probably one of the few highlights of the movie. 

The writing is as cliche as you might expect. Adding in these cheesy one-liners and a scene where Maggie and J.P. are vacationing in New Orleans, and, just like any other cliched action film, a group of thugs attempts to mug them, only for Maggie to knock them all out at once. Very typical.

But the most random moment of the film is its third act.

So this is Maggie's supposed last mission. She is assigned to masquerade as Angela, the spoiled girlfriend of Fahd Bakhitar, an Iranian business magnate trading in nuclear weapons. Just like in the original, Maggie has to simply incapacitate Angela, but of course, things go awry, which results in the deaths of two bodyguards and the injury of her partner, Beth. 

So here comes a special guest star in the form of Harvey Keitel as Victor the Cleaner who is sent by The Agency to fix the mission but, in actuality, he's sent there to kill Magge and Beth for screwing up. Unlike the original Victor, who was a reckless idiot, this Victor is a ruthless killing machine and is close to being the film's antagonist. He tries to dissolve the bodies only to discover that Anglea is still alive and Beth, just like her counterpart, starts freaking out, which results in Victor killing her even though she did not once pull out a gun on him. Watching her partner die in front of her, Maggie is forced to finish the mission, not knowing what's in store for her. 

The mission goes as planned, but the target, Fahd Bakhitar, escapes his assassination, and Maggie is forced to flee. 

The tension rises as Maggie and Victor escape the scene. She sees that he has a gun strapped to his side and, upon instinct, starts fighting him off. Victor is a pretty strong dude and almost gets the upper hand, but Maggie pulls down a STARTING vehicle on him, crushing him to death down a deep hill. 

After her near-death experience, Maggie finally confesses to J.P. about her secret life, and he agrees to hide her out for her safety. When Bob goes to look for her, J.P. tells him that she's suddenly disappeared and doesn't go any further about her whereabouts. But once he goes outside, Bob sees a silhouette of Maggie in an alleyway. Instead of reporting her, he calls the agency to inform that The Cleaner is dead, and with some hesitation, informs that Maggie is dead too.

So in the last shot of the film, Maggie goes out into the sunset, free as a bird. The End. 

Yeah...this wasn't as good as the original. Sure, you can look at it as your run-of-the-mill 90s action movie, but the original was much more than that. It was a thought-provoking, complex character study of a woman being trapped between two worlds, and the American version just didn't hit the same beats; it's not as engaging or organic.

There was a TV series that came out a couple of years later, titled La Femme Nikita, which premiered on the USA Network. I saw snippets of this here and there, but I've never really gotten to watch it the whole way through. But now that I'm a Nikita enthusiast, I might give it a watch a maybe put it up for review one day. 

Lastly, there was another TV series that premiered on the CW starring Maggie Q. The plot plays out much differently this time around. Nikita, after working for The Division for three years, is back to bring down the organization with the help of a young recruit. I've watched most of the first season, but I kind of checked out after that. Most of it wasn't that bad, but I wasn't totally invested in it either. 

Well, this is where I choose which version is the best. And it's the 1990 French version. Everything about it just works, and it's most likely one of my favorite films of all time. However, The Point of Return just doesn't have the same magic, and that makes it a very forgettable film in my opinion.

My Last Word: Yes, check out Nikita (1990). It's definitely worth your time. 

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