Nikita
“Leon” is perhaps one of my favorite films, but for some reason it has remained the only Luc Besson film besides “The Fifth Element” I have seen until today.
I don’t really get what is smart about this film. At several points, the main character just goes berserk without really doing anything. How likely is it that some killer would start crying in the middle of a mission and subsequently survives? It makes no sense.
To me it seems like the film trying to do two things at the same time. While in “Leon” it makes sense to have the little girl be the one who whines and Leon the capable killer, Nikita is neither completely whiny (but quite rebellious) yet at the same time she also never becomes a coldhearted killer. Instead she literally has a nervous break down at the most inappropriate moments. Technically she is responsible for several people’s deaths because of that, in a mission where she herself practically failed to do anything in the critical moment. Sure, she is supposed to be the frail girl and the psychology apparently should be just as important as the action – but where it works perfectly in Leon, it completely failed in this film. I am also not sure whether any of the other characters are human beings at all, in fact they are all surprisingly one-dimensional, even Jeanne Moreau’s character. I was quite surprised when she kissed her handler – when did that relationship get developed?
While Anne Parillaud is an absolutely gorgeous actress, I thought it was strange how little her femininity was exploited after Amande taught Nikita how to dress up like a woman. So she became a woman who can love and look feminine but she doesn’t seem to be using that to her advantage at all. In fact, in one instance she even has to dress up like a man. That sounds almost like a plot hole to me – why would you bother training a woman assassin if you have to disguise her as a man? Certainly this is not supposed to be a fanservicey film à la James Bond, but I expected a little more glamour or at least a few scenes more pleasing to the eye than Nikita’s eternally messy hair. In terms of suspense and pacing this is probably the worst action film of all times.
The one thing I really liked about the film was Nikita’s relationship with Marco. Its development is lovely and bittersweet, a little less dramatic than Leon’s and Mathilda’s but not less heartwarming. He is just a simple person and they just have a simple relationship. With that, the two of them provide a nice contrast of normality to Nikita’s otherwise very chaotic world.