Main Cast: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Malahide, Craig Bierko, Brian Cox
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
An ordinary woman discovers that her life was not always ordinary in this action thriller. Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a typical, well-mannered single mother working as a schoolteacher when she isn't looking after her children. Nothing on the surface would seem to be remarkable about Samantha's life, but every once in a while she has vague memories and unexplained impulses that don't add up with her current life experience; she has scars but no idea of how they got there, she suddenly displays a deadly talent for knife-throwing while chopping vegetables for dinner, and when she sees a deer, she suddenly attacks it with her bare hands. When an auto accident and a television news broadcast stirs some more uncomfortable memories, Samantha hires private investigator Mitch Hennessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to look into her past and see what he can find. Mitch learns that Samantha isn't really Samantha after all -- her name is Charley and she used to be a professional assassin with a secret government intelligence program. After a severe head injury, Charley developed a case of amnesia, and in time she developed her new personality as Samantha. However, her old boss has kept tabs on her, and now that it looks as if the old Charley is starting to come out again, he sends a pair of hit men after her to see to it that she doesn't remember anything else; soon Samantha and Mitch are on the run, trying to outdistance the killers as they get to the bottom of Charley's secret life. The Long Kiss Goodnight was directed by Renny Harlin, husband of leading lady Geena Davis; this was their second project together, following Cutthroat Island, released the previous year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Certainly a vast improvement over the legendary debacle of Cutthroat Island (1995), the previous collaboration of the then husband-and-wife team of director Renny Harlin and star Geena Davis, this overblown action thriller starts out very strong but fails to pay off in a satisfying conclusion. Acting really isn't the hallmark of the action genre, so suffice it to say that the cast is what is required of a fast-paced pulp tale littered with corpses and explosions: They grunt, grimace, and grit their teeth with appropriate determination when firing a weapon or jumping from great heights. It's the script by Shane Black that makes or breaks a film such as this, so it's a pleasant surprise that The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) starts off with an inventive high-concept twist, developing a character nicely. Sadly, it then morphs somewhere in the second act into a routine series of percussive beats and a predictable government espionage/conspiracy/paranoia tale. If their project had delved into the issues of identity as thoughtfully as those action epics based on the works of novelist Philip K. Dick, the filmmakers might truly have had something not only viscerally exciting but intellectually fresh and stimulating on their hands. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Steve Arnold - Art Director, Dennis Davenport - Art Director, Ronnie Yeskel - Casting, Mary Vernieu - Casting, Steve M. Davidson - Coordinator, Carla Fry - Co-producer, Michael Kaplan - Costume Designer, Bruce G. Moriarty - First Assistant Director, Renny Harlin - Director, William C. Goldenberg - Editor, Michael De Luca - Executive Producer, Steve Tisch - Executive Producer, Richard Saperstein - Executive Producer, Bonnie Greenberg - Musical Direction/Supervision, Alan Silvestri - Songwriter, Guillermo Navarro - Camera Operator, Howard Cummings - Production Designer, Stephanie Austin - Producer, Shane Black - Producer, Renny Harlin - Producer, Tom Doherty - Set Designer, Michael Taylor - Set Designer, Jeffrey A. Okun - Special Effects, Douglas Ganton - Sound/Sound Designer, Shane Black - Screenwriter
Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a suburban mother and schoolteacher with a seemingly normal life in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. However, she had been found badly injured and suffering from amnesia several years previously, and has no memory of her past. When she's attacked by an escaped convict, Samantha dispatches her attacker with lethal self-defense skills she wasn't aware she possessed. She hires wisecracking, ethically challenged private investigator Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson) to help her find the truth about her past. She contacts the mysterious Dr. Nathan Waldman (Brian Cox) who reveals that Samantha is really Charly Baltimore, an assassin for the CIA who went missing eight years ago. When Samantha is captured and tortured by some of her old enemies, "Charly", previously dormant, resurfaces. She discovers that her former boss at the CIA, Leland Perkins (Patrick Malahide), has allied with a psychotic ops specialist named Timothy (Craig Bierko) in a false flag plot to detonate a chemical bomb in downtown Niagara Falls, New York, frame Islamic terrorists for the crime, and thus secure more funding. She and Mitch set out to thwart the plot and rescue her young daughter, Caitlin (Yvonne Zima) from the clutches of the terrorists.
Production
The screenplay was written by Shane Black, who was at the start of the 1990s one of the highest-paid scriptwriters in Hollywood.
This movie was shot throughout Ontario, Canada. Many notable and well known spots can be picked out throughout. Filming took place in Toronto, Hamilton, Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Unionville and at Windermere House in Muskoka.
Some scenes were shot in parts of the US, however, Ontario, Canada was used for the majority of the filming because of the snowy winters.
Cast
Geena Davis — Samantha Caine/Charlene Elizabeth "Charly" Baltimore
