Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Hardened criminal Maggie Hayward's consistent violence, even in police custody, ends in the execution chamber. However, top-secret US government agent 'Bob' arranges a staged death, so Maggie can be elaborately trained as a phantom killer and subdued into obedience.
Point of No Return is a near scene-for-scene American remake of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990), offering almost nothing new beyond a Hollywood gloss and an English-language cast. The plot is a faithful but flattened retread of the original, losing much of the French film's gritty emotional texture and moral ambiguity. Bridget Fonda is competent and watchable in the lead, and Gabriel Byrne brings quiet menace to his mentor role, lifting the acting above average. Cinematography is serviceable genre work — polished but unremarkable. Novelty is genuinely very low: this is one of cinema's more blatant remakes, bringing essentially no fresh conception or distinctive voice. The ending, like much of the film, feels diluted compared to Besson's original, landing without real weight or surprise.