A film retrospective by Karl Rackwitz (Berlin, Germany, 1998):
-------------- Little Nikita -------------- (USA 1987)
Directed by Richard Benjamin; With River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, Richard Jenkins, Caroline Kava, Richard Bradford, Richard Lynch
Here we have just another example of two fine actors wasted in a badly written and weakly directed film.
The American teenager Jeff Grant (River Phoenix) applies for the admission into the Air Force Academy. FBI man Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) examines Jeff's particulars and stumbles on contradictory information about Jeff's parents (played by Richard Jenkins and Caroline Kava). At the same time Parmenter works on another case: The former KGB agent Scuba (played by Richard Lynch), who murdered Parmenter's colleague 20 years ago, now commits a series of murders of Russian agents to blackmail the KGB. Then KGB agent Konstantin Karpov (Richard Bradford), who wants to catch Scuba, is seen in Fountain Grove, the Grant family's place of residence. That makes Parmenter conjecture that Jeff's parents are Russian spies. His investigations confirm this suspicion. Jeff doesn't know of the espionage job of his parents. When he is told of it by Roy, with whom he has made friends, he gets thunderstruck. His parents - Russian spies?! Jeff's parents have been living the life of ordinary American people for 20 years. They run a garden nursery in Fountain Grove and use the false family name Grant. Now KGB man Karpov instructs them, who are also potential victims of Scuba, to become active again. They shall help in a surrender of money organized to catch Scuba. The Grants don't want to take part. But Karpov forces them by kidnapping Jeff ...
What may sound like an interesting idea, gets a disappointing film here. "Little Nikita" doesn't nearly exhaust the opportunities of the subject. It convinces neither on the level of Jeff's and his parents' identity problems, nor in its treatment of the Cold War, nor is it a suspenseful spy thriller.
The main problem of the film is its really weak screenplay (by Bo Goldman and John Hill). We are told little about Jeff's girlfriend although she doesn't seem unimportant in Jeff's life. The characters of the parents aren't paid enough attention. The Russians are degraded to cartoon characters. In short: The film can't be considered a serious work. Yet it could have become an exciting film. It hasn't. The screenplay is overly constructed and full of improbable incidents leading to a totally unbelievable finale.
Another fatal problem is Richard Benjamin's clumsy direction, especially in the action scenes of the film. An example is the weakly filmed scene, in which Scuba makes a woman be run over by a ship. The directorial flaws in the last 20 minutes of the film are much more serious than in this scene. Benjamin's direction makes the implausible finale even more absurd.
It is due to River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier that "Little Nikita" isn't completely unwatchable. They give the film some interest and a little bit suspense. Phoenix' performance is solid, partially fascinating, although he sometimes tends to overacting here. His interpretation of Jeff Grant hasn't the accuracy of his excellent performances in "Stand by Me" (1986), "Running on Empty" (1987), "Dogfight" (1991) and "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). Sidney Poitier is also quite good in the role of the FBI man Parmenter.
There are some references to the bilateral policy of détente between the Eastern and Western blocs. But to treat this theme convincingly it would have needed a serious dealing instead of clichés.
After all "Little Nikita" is a disappointing film with some entertainment value thanks to the two leads.
To all those who want to see better films starring River Phoenix, I especially recommend the following film in his filmography, Sidney Lumet's masterpiece "Running on Empty" (1987) in which Phoenix gives one of the best performances of his career.
I give "Little Nikita" still a ** rating on the Maltin scale of four stars.
(2.0 out of 4 = Average)
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