BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Scott LeBrun Anne Parillaud stars in the title role, a dangerous street punk who shoots a cop during a botched pharmacy robbery. She ends up saved from her execution by a typically shadowy government organization, because a character named Bob (Tcheky Karyo) has seen potential in her. She's groomed to be an assassin, and eventually adapts to this new life of hers. Adding to her newfound happiness is a romance with a nice guy supermarket cashier, Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade)."La Femme Nikita" may surprise you if you're seeing it for the first time. Having spawned an American remake ("Point of No Return") and a cable TV series, one might think it were wall to wall action. But it's not. It's actually got quite a bit of humanity, working as a straight drama (for the most part) with interludes of intrigue. It benefits from engaging characters; as Nikita blossoms, the character becomes more and more appealing. Anglade is a likable, worthy love interest, adding to the good vibes.That doesn't mean, however, that there's no action at all. One set piece in a restaurant will capture the viewers' attention, as things go from bad to worse and Nikita gets caught in a shootout. There is some potent violence to enjoy, and giving the proceedings a real shot in the arm is the late-in- the-game appearance of ever-cool Jean Reno, who plays an unhinged "cleaner" named Victor.The sexy Parillaud is convincing every step of the way. The excellent Karyo does a compelling job as this unlikely new sort of "father figure" in her life. Film legend Jeanne Moreau adds a great touch of class as Amande, who coaches Nikita on how to bring out her femininity.The breakthrough film for its writer / director, Luc Besson, "Nikita" might be too slow and quiet for some tastes, but it does have style. Besson would later re-team with Reno for his American debut, "Leon the Professional".Seven out of 10.

talisencrw Upon cinematic release, being fascinated with Bridget Fonda, I watched 'Point of No Return', which I enjoyed but had no idea it was based on Besson's film. Badham's work was okay in my books, but nothing spectacular. Over the years I had loved those films of his I had seen ('Leon: The Professional', 'The Fifth Element', 'The Family' and 'Lucy'), and decided I wanted to see his earlier classic. I like the fact that Besson always has some hand in the writing, and the exquisite and graceful small part he wrote for acting legend Jeanne Moreau, virtually a microcosm of everything splendid she had ever brought to the screen. Besson has a very good feel for the genres his films represent--he plays to his strengths, and is not afraid to stick to his guns (for example, I'm glad he chose the ending that he did). The two significant extras on my DVD, remarking on the making of the film, and the sound selections by scorer Eric Serra, were both informative and entertaining, and added significant value. I highly recommend the experience to those who only think of 'The Fifth Element' when they think of Luc's work--you're in for a real treat...

chaos-rampant This is an action thriller by Besson but shows a softer glint beneath the guns. A gun opens the night, fired by the heroine for no particular reason at all, a moment's whim but it takes someone's life, a karmic chain whirs in place. She then emerges inside a spyworld where she's going to be groomed to be the action heroine we expect, a figurative death has preceded.But something's off in this underground spyworld, the effort is not fidelity to genre. Her spymaster takes a birthday cake to her room, the room's walls are painted with scrawlings like out of a child's paintwork, this to underscore something we've been seeing for a while; a heroine who is childlike, irreverent, fragmented. Besson isn't propping here the cool silent image of the gun totting hero, he would later.I am reminded here of Ruiz's drawings of internal landscape using genre ink dipped in mirrors, he would later use Parillaud in a film I've seen called Shattered Image. A whimsical irreverence as she flummoxes instructors in the academy, this is all ostensibly under the pretense that she's being groomed to be the genre character but it's also the entry to what's beautiful here. Different portraits of this girl, the journey is to womanhood as a woman advises while doing her makeup, femininity as growing into and exploring your role.The role expects pain, as all roles do. There's a love affair, schematic but this is to quickly set up a next life where she has her own life that she shares, one of spontaneous gestures, joy that just wells up from breakfast in bed - nothing like the soulless Angelina Jolie products that explain plots. But what do we see of that love, what pain threatens? An ordinarily happy one but suddenly being yanked by doubt; 'Josephine' on the phone, and she has to drop everything and sneak out for the spy story where she has to pretend to be someone else, in Venice she has to worry about shooting a target while her man outside the door pours out a confession. Here nothing is really explained of the missions, we figure it but the point is the intrusion of a hidden self, the spying as doubt.I don't get from it the coercion and oppression of a beautiful spirit by society, this would turn her into merely an icon of purity. I see all this as the same obstacles, outlandish here to thrill ourselves on the side, that every life has to face as it struggles to realize magic in the havoc, truth in the duplicity of life.Ultimately Besson promises a better film than he eventually delivers, because the promise is masterful but requires an even more fluid hand; I imagine a threehour film in the hands of Rivette who gave us Celine and Julie about girls confronting the responsibility to a role. A third shift has her disguised as a man in hat and coat, abandoning her femininity to snap images of meaningless documents. The ending is poignant, we never really truly know what casts the shadow, this is even before shooting the gun, we're never told where she goes.

robert-259-28954 Long before there were all of the "edgy, dangerous, and sexy" women we now see in action films every day, there was Anne Parillaud. In the over two decades since this seminal film was produced, unfortunately, they have never produced another actress quite like her. When I first viewed this movie, I was totally unprepared for what I was going to see, a virtual force of nature in a slim female figure. As a working actor myself, there are certain things that make a great actor, or a great performance. Part of this magic involves someone who not only fully understands the character, but brings the creative energy and intelligence to the role, fearlessly and without self-consciousness. Parillaud was like watching a master class in the art of acting... she embodied all of these essential qualities, and more. But with all the many good young actors today, NONE could have played the part with such a fully realized landscape of every human emotion imaginable—from drug-induced psychosis, to unfettered youthful rebellion, to total surrender and adulthood, then ultimately morphing to a beautiful compromise of each. Rather than recount all the story points of this movie, I only wish the reader to simply pick up a copy of this film, and watch the original "Nikita" do her thing. I can only describe her fabulous performance as, "Feral." WATCH IT.