Thursday, April 15, 2010

La Femme Nikita


La Femme Nikita (1990) is one of the few famous eighties movies from a different country. Though I am not normally a foreign film buff, I am always up for a spy/assassin movie. La Femme Nikita did not disappoint. However, it is not a movie to watch expecting a happy ending or hoping for a positive outcome. Nikita, the main character, starts out as a cop-killing drug addict. When she is sentenced to death through lethal injection, the “government” decides to give her another chance. She is trained in a secret facility to become a government agent. Lessons involve fighting, shooting, and feminine advantages. Though her progress seems null at first and she is rude and belligerent to her teachers, her supervisor Bob convinces her to keep trying.

This is not a happy film. There is a lot shown about killing people and the psychological consequences that it eventually leads to. Being an assassin is a great job until you fall in love and have to keep a secret, or your mission messes up and you find out what assassins needs to be capable of. While I enjoyed this movie, it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Though I could see the similarities to Pretty Woman in Nikita’s transformation, Pretty Woman was uplifting and hopeful. La Femme Nikita just made me feel pity and sadness.

1 comment:

Vladigogo said...

That last mission she has gets really rough.