COLOMBIANA

France, 2011, 108 minutes. Colour.
Zoe Saldana, Jordi Molla, Lennie James, Amandla Stenberg, Michael Varten, Cliff Curtis, Beto Benites.
Directed by Olivier Megaton.

La femme Cataleya.

Director-writer, Luc Besson, made two films about assassins in the 1990s, La Femme Nikita (remade in the US as The Assassin) and Leon (sub-titled The Professional). These films were thrillers but had some strong characterisation even as they looked at the bleak and isolated world of the assassin. While Colombiana is in this vein, it is more of a surface thriller than exploring the deeper themes that it introduces.

Zoe Saldana, after her turn as the lead in Avatar, is a ruthless assassin who takes on contracts from her uncle (Cliff Curtis), more than twenty killings of high profile gangsters and criminals. She leaves a signature message, the Colombian orchid, the cataleya. But, the message is not for the authorities. It is for the drug lord who killed her mother and father. The audience has seen this at the opening of the film and have seen the effect on the seemingly impassive Cataleya who skilfully escapes her pursuers at the age of nine, going to the US embassy with information from her father, but escaping on arrival in the US and hiding away with her uncle who trains her to kill.

The central part of the film is the visualising of two assassinations which she performs more than adeptly. Because the film relies on swift-paced action, we do not see any of her preparation for her work, just the expert fulfilling of her mission. In the meantime, an FBI officer has been pursuing the case, assuming that the assassin is male.

Eventually, Cataleya (with some deadly threats) discovers where the drug boss has been hiding and sets out to rid the world of him and his sinister assistant (Jordi Molla).

Careful to preserve her anonymity, she shuns all personal revealing of herself but does fall in love with an artist (Michael Vartan) who is the unwitting cause of her being tracked down.

You get exactly what you expected: a grim story of violence and revenge, filmed and edited with pace – and the possibility, if you are interested, to think more deeply about justice, revenge and passionate human nature.

1. An effective action thriller? Drug story? Assassinations?

2. Luc Besson, his career, writing, directing, action thrillers, stories of assassins?

3. The Colombia setting, the 1990s, the mansion, the houses, the city itself, the landscapes during the opening credits? Chicago by contrast? The United States, American cities, New Orleans? The variety of locations? The pounding score?

4. The stunt work, the chases, the assassinations, special effects?

5. The serious themes underlying the thriller, the surface action?

6. The prologue, Luis and Cataleya’s father? In the mansion, the guards, armed? The talk? Marco and his presence? The surface peace? The anger on both sides? The orders to kill? The aftermath? The father and his looking out over the city? The decision to escape? Going home, his daughter in her uniform, his wife? Marco and the commission to kill? The surrounding of the house, the attack, the deaths, the confrontation of Cataleya, her age? Her putting the knife in Marco’s hand? The chase throughout the city, going to the US embassy? The passport, the plane trip, entering the United States, immediately escaping, going to her uncle?

7. Her plan, her seemingly impassive reaction to Marco, the deadly decision, training to become an assassin, revenge? Her name, the flower, her signature? Growing up, the many assassinations – and leaving the pattern?

8. Her personality, chameleon, the episode with her being drunk, the car crash, put in the cell, the other prisoner arriving, her going into the roof ducts, getting into the cell, the killing of the prisoner? Her escape from the cell? Walking out of the precinct? The later examination of the surveillance tapes?

9. The police, Ross and his pursuit of the assassin over the years, his work, the assistants, his investigation? Presuming that the assassin was a man?

10. Cataleya’s uncle, seeing him torturing the prisoner, his relationship to his mother, bringing up Cataleya, giving her the jobs, the various rendezvous points for offering the jobs? His cutting Cataleya off because of her vengeance? At church, with his mother, the meeting? His mother and her love for Cataleya? Don Luis’s henchmen, getting the information, the deaths of the uncle and his mother? The effect on Cataleya?

11. The assassination in the Bahamas, the rich man, with the women, his guards, Cataleya’s infiltration of the house? The sharks?

12. Dan, her love for him, an artist, his paintings, the relationship, her being secretive, going out to meals, going away, his going to New York for the exhibition arrangements, her return, their being together, his wanting more information, the mobile phone and the photo, showing the photo to his friend – and the friend getting information? The police? The FBI and the discovery of the identity, bugging the phones, certifying Cataleya’s identity, the surveillance tapes? Tracking down Cataleya, her escape?

13. Don Luis, Marco, their refuge in New Orleans, after the information about Cataleya pursuing Luis? The realisation of what would happen? The protection?

14. The agent in communication with Don Luis? His smug behaviour? Cataleya persuading Ross? The interview with him? His going to the agent? The threat to Ross’s family? The threat to the agent? Cataleya and her firing the missile? The agent giving the information to Cataleya?

15. New Orleans, her infiltration of the mansion, having the plan of the house and her demands for it, the confrontation, the fight with Marco and his death, Don Luis hiding? Finding him? His death?

16. The escape, the mission accomplished?

17. The effect of her life on Cataleya, the consequences, her relationships with her family, with Danny, on her personality?

18. The vigilante themes – in the context of the portrait of an assassin?