The french film back from 1990 written and directed by Luc Besson is a film about a convicted – Nikita – and the choice she is given to be an assassin for the french government. She chooses to accept the offer and during her training she is molded into a pretty and perfect assassin designed for killing at command.
Soon after she is releashed back into the world she mets a man and they fall in love and they enjoy life together, until she gets the first call …Josephine?.. It becomes increasingly more difficult their relationship as he wants to know her better and she cannot give him any answers about her previous life.
However the person that she was before cannot seem to let her go, and the assassin life is not for her, and she disapears.
You see a woman who desparetly trying to get a hold of her life and yet it crumbles right in front of her. The scene where Josephine is to shot the woman through the bathroom window and Marco talks to her through the door, is absolutely heartbreaking. She was Josephine and Marie at the same time, professional and the woman in love.
No one in the film comes out of the story without serious scars, she leaves her love Marco, Marco is left behind alone, Bob is left a tortured man from his unreturned feelings for Nikita and she is gone.
La femme Nikita is not an action movie, so if you expect that you will be dissapointed. There are action scenes but it’s not the essence of the film.
Jean Reno – whom I adore and admire – has a role as the cleaner. I have never ever watched a film with him where he disappoints me. He always always does a brilliant job and so also in this film.