Nikita

Nikita

Through the ages, criminals have been treated very differently. The death penalty, prison sentences and rehabilitation. Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange took a different approach. Serious crimes deserve serious treatments and the kind of 'brain washing' or 'programming' that occurs in that film is extreme and not necessarily for the best. Nikita is a similar kind of film in storyline, but that's where the similarities end.

It's quite possible that before watching this film ,the majority of the viewing public will of seen this film in another form, either the awful American remake 'The assassin' with Bridget Fonda or the TV series La Femme Nikita. A drugged up women is tied to a gang of ruthless thugs due to her dependency on hardcore recreational pharmaceuticals. Her involvement with the gang seems to be minimal until she's caught up in a police shoot out and commits an horrendous act and is taken into custody.

From here the story changes towards the rehabilitation of Nikita's character and the focuses on her 'programming/training' by a government agency. Along this path, she is guided by Bob (Tchéky Karyo) and trained into becoming a lady and then a hitman. At this point, the film becomes fairly slow paced, yet doesn't fill in any back story and it's hard to establish how Nikita managed to get herself into this position in the first place. It's because of this that its hard to feel any emotion for Nikita when she is being put through the difficult training and the subsequent challenges she encounters back out in the real world.

The first 'hit' that Nikita is given is brilliantly shot, and the action seems brutally real. The bullets fly, the blood flows and the final escape from the clutches of an explosion is great. It's just a shame that the rest of the film couldn't continue this frantic pace, and on-the-edge of the seat action.The relationships that Nikita forms aren't fulfilled and its obvious that sooner or later the truth will become clear for all to see. But, this is where the film falls down as its impossible to truly emotionally connect with any of the characters involved. There is one scene involving Jean Reno which is extremely brutal and shocking which manages finally brings Nikita's vulnerability to the screen, unfortunately its far too late into the film.

Without giving too much away, the ending lacks something. The film ends at a point with a lot of questions unanswered, possibly left open for a sequel which never happened or just to let the audiences imagination run riot. This isn't to say the film isn't entertaining as at some points the tension is high and the action is excellent, but I was hoping for so much more. This could of been because I knew a lot of the story beforehand, but it could also be because I wanted to feel something towards the characters but wasn't able to, at the times the story needed me to. It is interesting to see Jean Reno though, as his performance is short, sweet and too the point and almost certainly won him the role in Leon.