Truly there was a point where they couldn’t go back
Bridget Fonda takes over the role of Josephine in the french version, with Maggie Hayward. A no-name junkie who finds herself accused of murder and sentenced to death, ends up in the hands of a man named simply ‘Bob’. He breaks her of her habits, reforms her and convinces her (through some means of non-verbal threats) that she was born to be more than she is. Through a long vigorous training session, she becomes a dangerous killing machine for the US government. Soon she wants a life of her own and finds that it isn’t easy to break away from the situation she is.
I think this is probably the first movie that critics asked the question, “Why?” Luc Besson’s french classic, which was barely two years old, and had a ton more personality than this version. While Besson had some writing credits for this film, he did decline to remake it for an American audience. Why did he decline it? Well, let’s get into that.
First, the acting was completely wrong for this. While french actress Anne Parillaud certainly pulled off one of the most memorable roles for a female action star (yes Jolie has nothing on her!), Bridget Fonda’s Hayward was only a fraction of the bitter-ass-kicker. Probably a popular actress for this time period, she had finished films such as Singles, Single White Female and Army of Darkness, she certainly wasn’t the type of actress that fit every mold; Point of No Return was a wonderful example of mismatch. She simply wasn’t tough enough and she did give everything she could, but just couldn’t push herself into that badass, ruthless role. It wasn’t simply action with her though, the dialogue that was prepared for her didn’t come out at all like it should have when she spoke it. From the moment where she takes Bob hostage and tries to escape the complex, she was reading the dialogue as if the movie was a love story. I don’t know if I can completely pin this on her or not, as it could have been the script.
Regardless of Bridget Fonda, the film had no business being remade. None at all. I can buy that it would be a difficult sale for the American public to read subtitles. In the early 90s, subtitles weren’t widely expected or accepted when it came to the American film goer. I could see how Warner Brothers saw that as a drawback and decided that remaking a successful film was more important than adding words that possibly no one would read or want to read. From a producer’s perspective the blueprints were already out there for the movie to be successful. If you practically went frame-by-frame with the American version, it couldn’t fail. While the main role certainly was wrong, the other parts that didn’t seem to gel started with the awful music. There are few films where I can say without a doubt that the music annoyed me enough to wish that the Blu-ray had a ‘turn off composed music’ option. I would mute it if I could because it’s completely wrong for this film. It’s glorified piano bar music that doesn’t add to the scenes, it actually gets in the way of the scenes. It’s distracting, ugly and (again) just plain annoying.
The second major thing that was wrong with it is that the french rules for bringing someone in for murder is completely different from how America would work. Lawyers would stop up Hayward from being put to death, it would be years in the American judicial system. She would be somewhere in her 50s before it might actually happen. So, with that said, it doesn’t work. Unlike the french film, where the montage of Josephine’s training was long and drawn out, Hayward’s training and submission was nearly instantaneous. Once Bob had told her that her chances for cooperating were up, she met with Anne Bancroft’s character, Amanda, and boom! She was ready to leave the complex. No in-betweens, no clearly explained plot points to move the story along, just instantaneous redemption. Mix that with just bad editing in general and that’s it, just plainly awful.
Are there any redeeming factors? Well, it will make you want to watch La Femme Nikita. That’s a huge plus.
Now, you can count the Blu-ray as a redeeming factor. The movie, which is 16 years old, looks fabulous in high-definition and it sounds fantastic through a 7.1 set-up. It’s a shame that the music ruins the latter and the story ruins the visual experience, but if you’re a fan of this version you won’t be disappointed. Warner Brothers did a good transfer and it looks sharp as a nail.
Regretfully, you only get a trailer on the Blu-ray. I would have loved to hear about the production of this, maybe some commentary. Sadly, only a trailer.