n stylized slow-motion with flashing lights and hallucinatory imagery, this slightly Americanized remake of “La Femme Nikita” (or, simply, Luc Besson’s “Nikita”) begins with a routine introduction, showing a collection of stereotypical miscreants robbing a shop for drug money. Curiously, the police response includes sniper rifles, which take out the whole gang, save for Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda), who, in her drug-addled state, ruthlessly executes a cop. Her irredeemable, heinous crime – followed by the merciless stabbing of a policeman and the assault of court clerks at her trial – finds her sentenced to death by lethal injection. “Mommy!” she finally screams in a brief moment of repentance, though it’s much too late.

Or is it? Instead of dying, she awakes in an undecorated, white room, greeted by a man simply called Bob (Gabriel Byrne). As it turns out, a shadowy government agency has decided to give Maggie a second chance – adopting her into a program for super secretive, covert assassins with no identities. “You know you can’t get away with this.”

She’s not exactly smart, but she’s crafty enough to get the jump on her handlers. She isn’t all that interested in having a rare opportunity to start her life over, but she doesn’t exactly have a choice. And so, this ungrateful, irreverent, foul-mouthed loser is trained in computer skills and martial arts, as well as in manners and styling and charm – as if a candidate in a beauty school (or a pick for a “My Fair Lady” makeover). Surely this black-ops program could find more suitable, willing recruits elsewhere.

Since the premise is so over-the-top and unlikely, it’s difficult to sympathize with Maggie or Bob; neither one of these roles is believable or even sensible. And this marginal reimagining doesn’t alter enough elements to make it stand apart from the original; at every turn, it either directly redoes sequences or changes them so minimally that the differences are negligible. It’s really intended solely for audiences unfamiliar with the fact that it’s a remake.

Viewers are meant to pity the harshness of Maggie’s training – or, at least, the shock of her first mission – but the realism is so low that mustering emotions for the fish-out-of-water isn’t an easy task. As with its predecessor, one of the most unusual components of this action-packed thriller is its inclusion of romance; it’s almost a romantic drama, masquerading as a spy-based adventure, with oodles of destruction and collateral damage (it even has its own romcom montages with upbeat music and carefree flirtation). At the same time, Maggie is essentially a child, unknowledgeable about how the world works, especially when it comes to men. It appears that all she really knows how to do is kill people; it’s possible she’s entirely inexperienced with the opposite sex.

The eventual character development for Maggie is the picture’s strong point; her past is tragic and weighs heavily on her current wellbeing and mental stability (the death-dealing, not so much). But this isn’t the kind of movie in which a love story can really take hold, since at any moment, Maggie’s facade could crumble as she’s forced into another life-or-death situation. As a result, any fleeting happiness she discovers for herself is tenuous. But it almost doesn’t matter, since her love interest (Dermot Mulroney) is rather consistently annoying. In the end, the film thrives on cinematic timing – or overly convenient near-misses and fortuitous circumstances during deadly confrontations – which cheapens the impact of missions. But Fonda is well-cast and the supporting performances are mostly fitting (or acted with sincerity) – including turns by recognizable stars Miguel Ferrer, Olivia d’Abo, Anne Bancroft, and Harvey Keitel. The main problem is simply the fact that this film can’t justify its own existence, considering the inconsequential alterations (and the few that are less satisfying than in the 1990 version, which is basically too popular and recent to warrant a remake at all).

– Mike Massie