Point of No Return MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 Content: -3

Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is running with the wrong crowd. When she kills a policeman during a robbery, she's sentenced to death. Bob (Gabriel Byrne), a recruiter for a covert government agency which trains assassins, sees her as a perfect operative. He arranges to fake her execution and funeral, and brings her to assassin boot camp. A reluctant Maggie is placed in the tutelage of Amanda (Anne Bancroft). In addition to the art of murder, she learns etiquette, poise and confidence. Passing her "graduation exercise" of killing a man in cold blood at a posh restaurant, she is sent to Santa Monica, posing as a computer software buyer. She soon falls in love with J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), her apartment manager. Her covert duties become repugnant to her, and Bob promises her he will get her out after one more hit. This job turns out to be very difficult. Unknown to both Maggie and Bob, the agency has already decided that this will be her last assignment. Their idea of her retirement is something a little more permanent. This movie has a good blend of action, suspense, romance and intrigue. The plot moves along quickly with many twists and turns.

Sadly, POINT OF NO RETURN's appeal comes with the heavy price of objectionable language, violence, nudity and explicit sex. Language includes many f- and s-words, several regular profanities and slang for many sexual acts. Moderate violence runs throughout, with numerous gun shots and a man stabbed in the hand with a pencil. Gratuitous nudity appears when a woman reveals her breasts, and a man exposes his nude rear from a window at a Mardi Gras celebration. Sexual relations between Maggie and J.P. are once depicted, once implied. Neither contains nudity. For some reason, we get to see Maggie's bladder let go at her faked execution. All told, the down side outweighs the good in this intriguing, but defiled film

Preview Reviewer: Pete Zimowski
Distributor: Warner Brothers, 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522