"IF IT AIN'T BROKE..." II: POINT OF NO RETURN, THE VANISHING
1993 saw the release of two high-profile remakes of foreign films that were cult hits: John Badham's POINT OF NO RETURN, a remake of the 1991 Luc Besson film LA FEMME NIKITIA, and George Sluizer's THE VANISHING, a remake of his own 1989 film. For the former, a pop action director had his film remade by a hack (albeit a sometimes talented one), while the latter was a director remaking his own art film. The result is the former, while not as good as the original, is still a good ride, while the latter is a travesty of its original.
POINT OF NO RETURN was ignored at the box office, possibly because enough people had already seen Besson's original, more likely because people didn't buy Bridget Fonda as an action hero. Still, while this doesn't match the delirious highs of the original, the remake is an enjoyable ride.
As with the original, we start off with a murder by a drug-crazed young woman, Maggie (Fonda). For killing a cop, Maggie is sent to prison, and, it seems, about to be executed. That's when Bob (Gabriel Byrne), a government agent, steps in. Bob belongs to a secret government agency that will not only train Maggie to fit into society, but also harness her strength and anger to make her a killing machine. After weeks of training how to be a killer and a lady (the latter courtesy of Amanda (Anne Bancroft)), Maggie is ready for the outside world. However, it doesn't go like Maggie thinks, because her expected dinner date with Bob turns out to be an assignment to kill someone. Though she does the job and survives, she's become ambivalent for the first time about killing someone. That especially comes through when she falls in love with J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), a photographer, and she realizes Bob is also in love with her.
Badham and writers Robert Getchell and Alexandra Seros stick to the original fairly closely - Badham even copies many of the same shots in the restaurant killing, for example. What Badham doesn't have is the same pop sensibility Besson brought to his film, remaking it instead with the generic craft of American action movies (though at least he doesn't stoop to numbing us). Besson does manage to keep some of the humor of the original, as with the character of the Cleaner, who helps Maggie with a job at the end (the fact that Harvey Keitel, who normally plays tortured characters, is the coolly efficient killer here is also a nice touch). Mostly, however, what makes this work is Badham et al pay attention to Maggie's vulnerability, both before she becomes a "killing machine," and after.
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