My Favourite Movies: The Long Kiss Goodnight

Now, if I was pitching an idea to a cynical studio executive about an amnesiac assassin who recovers her memory just in time to foil a terrorist plot I really wouldn’t go with the name Geena Davis in the lead role. Not that I don’t like her, I do, but just that “action hero” and “Geena Davis” don’t usually form parts of the same sentence or at least they didn’t until this 1996 movie came along.

The plot is about as far fetched as they come. We are introduced the frumpy local teacher and home maker Samantha Caine who can’t remember anything about her life prior to 8 years ago. Until that is she gets involved in a car wreck around Christmas time. Over the next few days she starts having nightmares and waking visions about another more violent version of herself. When someone tries to kill her in her own home (and fails) she goes on a hunt for her past with low-life detective Mitch Henessey played by Samuel L Jackson in his usual wisecracking form. Of course the bad-guys (in the guise of her former employers the CIA) want her out of the way before she can uncover the plot about to be hatched to manufacture a terrorist incident on US soil as a much needed ‘fundraiser’ care of the US tax payer. What the baddies don’t realise is that their actions to silence Charlie Baltimore (Samantha Caine’s ‘real’ name) awakens the ruthless assassin hidden deep inside her with awesome consequences.

A number of things lift this movie above the generic factory produced film this could have been. The way that Geena Davis and Samuel Jackson spark off each other is highly entertaining. Both actors are funny and quick witted with it. It must have been very amusing to watch them in action on the set. The action sequences where nicely done with plenty of bullets flying and some inventive additions to a pretty tired genre (even back then). Then, of course, there was the seemingly bizarre choice of Geena herself. Even sitting there watching it it’s difficult to believe that she’s doing the things she does – casually breaking bad guys necks and shooting them dead with astonishing accuracy and with barely a flicker of emotion. I think I watched this movie the first time 16 years ago honestly open mouthed followed by howls of laughter as bad guy after bad guy gets what’s coming to him. Both Geena and Sam get some great one-liners and their timing is flawless. All in all this is highly entertaining hokum where you really need to put your brain in neutral and just go for it. Let the whole thing just wash over you (carefully ignoring your critical faculties) and just have fun. But be warned – this is far from a family friendly film as the swearing content is very high as is the body count.