Today’s quick review: La Femme Nikita. When Nikita (Anne Parillaud), a troubled young woman, is sentenced to life in prison, the government offers her a chance to repay her debt by becoming an assassin. Under the guidance of Bob (Tcheky Karyo), she is taught how to present herself, how to fight, and how to kill. But when she graduates to field work, she has trouble reconciling her newfound freedom with the risky, anonymous assignments she is given.
La Femme Nikita is a crime drama from director Luc Besson. La Femme Nikita follows the transformation of Nikita from a violent, aimless woman to a refined assassin with a shot at a mostly normal life. Unlike most movies about assassins, La Femme Nikita has only a sprinkling of action. Instead, the focus is on Nikita, her quirks, and the challenges she faces adjusting to her new life.
La Femme Nikita strips away the glamor from the assassination business. The assassins are unstable criminals forced into service by the government. Every mission has a million ways it can go wrong, many of them caused by the limited information each operative is allowed. And at the center of it all is a woman whose chance at normalcy is jeopardized by the missions she is forced to complete.
Nikita herself is a complex character, growing out of her impulsive youth and into the professionalism of an assassin. Her erratic behavior and hostility make her hard to sympathize with, but her difficult circumstances and vivacity offer her some hope of redemption. The peculiar heroine is ably played by Anne Parillaud. Playing opposite her is Tcheky Karyo as her calm, cool handler Bob.
The result of all these elements is a well-presented, character-driven crime drama with a dash of action. La Femme Nikita is a rare movie that presents the bad with the good, that focuses on people over events, and that has the raw quality to pull it off. As a thriller or an action movie it is outclassed, but its unusual tone and strong presentation make it worth a watch. For a similar film by the same director with a bit more story, check out The Professional.
7.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for good characters, strong presentation, and an unusual take on the hitman genre.