Little Nikita

It's easy to look back now at this film as a very average Cold War thriller, but that is with the benefit of hindsight. It's difficult for today's generation, those of the age that the Phoenix character plays, to appreciate that the world really was living with a possible Nuclear destruction if there had been an accident or serious misunderstanding.

The action and drama is really primarily psychological, with the heart of the film hinging on the Poitier and Phoenix performances. It's easy now to pass off the whole thing as a trivial character piece, but, then, the stakes were sky high and the Cold War themes were progressive and unusual. In our post Cold War world where Gorbachev and Reagan slowly recede into the mists of history it would be a shame to write of this movie without understanding the atmosphere it was made in.

The renegade wants $200k... in 1988. Ten years before Austin Powers, this movie one ups it. Or one downs it. At least the renegade isn't greedy. Or intelligent.

The plot is all so whacky, nearly defies belief. Inexplicable motives by the bad guy, and hilarious incompetence by the US and USSR.

Considering there was literally only one FBI guy assigned to this case- involving over half a dozen Russian agents in the US- , they probably didn't want you to sweat the plot too much. Like a lengthy sequence where a pickup truck struggles to chase a commuter train. Hmm, where might that train be going? Gee, maybe farther down the track?

The Russian agent hangs out in the FBI agent's house so that he can capture Phoenix's character to use as leverage to force Phoenix's sleeper Russian agent parents to give the money to the renegade. Good thing the FBI agent didn't show up a few minutes earlier! It's a painfully glaring example of a script needing to move some characters somewhere else but can't think of any plausible way to make it happen.

And why exactly did the Russian agent keep Phoenix hostage after the handoff went south? Was he really trying to sneak him off to Russia? Despite Phoenix (who IS American) ultimately rebelling... oh, and the fact the FBI WOULD KNOW?

Of course not. Once again, it's painfully clunky script mechanics to get the characters together. Ugh.

Then there's a shootout/hostage situation on a pedestrian bridge at the San Ysidro border crossing, but nobody seems to notice. Yup.

What throws it for a loop is that most of the script would have played better as comedy or satire, but almost all the actors are playing it like a hard core drama. And the acting is really quite solid. Poitier and Phoenix have great chemistry here.

You could practically make a drinking game from how many times Poitier looks at the photos of the parents.

The script is just unbelievably ridiculous. The core of the sleeper agents with an unknowing son was nifty, as well as how this was discovered, by the kid applying to the Air Force without his parents knowing, triggering a background check. But wow did it go south from there.

Considering the renegade Soviet agent is killing people left and right, you'd think there would be some behind the scenes coordination between the US and Russians to solve the problem.

The Soviets suspect their agent nicknamed Scuba (Richard Lynch) is killing their deep agents and blackmailing them. They send agent Karpov (Richard Bradford) to stop him. In San Diego, FBI agent Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) has been hunting Scuba for killing his partner. He discovers false information on the Air Force Academy application of Jeffrey Grant (River Phoenix) and suspects his parents Richard (Richard Jenkins) and Elizabeth (Caroline Kava).

There are a lot of dead bodies and it seems only Parmenter is on the case. The Russian characters are too Russian. They are literally meeting at the ballet. Despite having some great actors, this doesn't have the needed gritty realism. The idea of Russian sleeper agents in the suburbs could be interesting but this is not well executed. River Phoenix continues to be great. His next movie 'Running on Empty' has a superior family with secret identities.

I would bet that of all the films young River Phoenix did in his short and sweet life, Little Nikita is probably the one where he played the most normal of kids. But it's that very normality that is the basis for the shock unfolding before him.

A rogue agent played by Richard Lynch who has specialized in playing really evil and loathsome types on the big and small screens is going around killing various sleeper agents that the Russians have planted over the years in America. Lynch is blackmailing the Soviets for big bucks to stop bumping off the deep cover spies. One of their top guys, Richard Bradford, is going to America to deal with the problem. As this is the time of Glasnost with Reagan and Gorbachev in some serious and far reaching negotiations, we don't want this to get public and blow up the summit.

At the same time while Sidney Poitier as an FBI agent is running routine background checks for armed service academy admissions, something really doesn't compute in young River Phoenix's background. It turns out that his parents are deep cover agents who've never been activated to do anything. And by an incredible coincidence I just really couldn't buy, Lynch is a guy who killed Poitier's partner many years ago and he wants him too.

You'd think that with this kind of problem a little below summit Glasnost would have been in order for the KGB and FBI. But no, they're both working at cross purposes for the same goal.

What Little Nikita does have going for it to give it as many stars as it does have is River Phoenix's angst ridden performance of an All American kid whose whole world comes crashing around about him. River's screen characters were usually quirky, but he could play a normal kid and well.

Phoenix's performance and the nice location shooting in and around the San Diego area are the only reason to watch this well meaning, but ultimately rather silly film.

"Little Nikita" is a good thriller and I found it really enjoyable. I am glad that the lovely Loretta Devine (who played Reese in Urban Legend 1 and 2) had the honour of working with River Phoenix before his death. Sidney Poitier gives a good performance also. I found it highly entertaining and enjoyable. And once again, River Phoenix becomes his character in this taut thriller from Richard Benjamin.