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Title: The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Geena Davis | ... | Samantha Caine (Charly) | |
| Samuel L. Jackson | ... | Mitch Henessey | |
| Yvonne Zima | ... | Caitlin | |
| Craig Bierko | ... | Timothy | |
| Tom Amandes | ... | Hal | |
| Brian Cox | ... | Nathan | |
| Patrick Malahide | ... | Perkins | |
| David Morse | ... | Luke / Daedalus | |
| Joseph McKenna | ... | One-Eyed Jack | |
| Melina Kanakaredes | ... | Trin | |
| Dan Warry-Smith | ... | Raymond | |
 |
Kristen Bone | ... | Girl #1 |
|
|
Jennifer Pisana | ... | Girl #2 |
| Rex Linn | ... | Man in Bed | |
| Alan North | ... | Earl | |
Samantha Caine, suburban homemaker, is the ideal mom to her 8 year old daughter Caitlin. She lives in Honesdale, PA, has a job teaching school and makes the best Rice Krispie treats in town. But when she receives a bump on her head, she begins to remember small parts of her previous life as a lethal, top-secret agent. Her old chums in the Chapter are now out to kill her so she enlists the help of a cheap detective named Mitch. As Samantha remembers more and more of her previous life, she becomes deadlier and more resourceful. Both Mitch and Charly proceed to do the killing thing, the bleeding thing and the shooting thing. Written by Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
I feel extremely sad for some of the people who have been reviewing this film. It is apparent that their standards are so high that they will never be able to enjoy a film just for enjoyment sake. Or, perhaps, their enjoyment is derived from the act of picking films apart; looking for any reason at all to dislike them?
The Long Kiss Goodnight is an action film, in every sense of the word. Sure, there are holes in the plot big enough to drive a semi through, but none of them are enough to stop the flow of the film itself. I have never been a big Geena Davis fan, but I was impressed with how she was able to create two very different characters, Samantha Cain and Charlie Baltimore. In my opinion, it wasn't even necessary to have changed her physical appearance to differentiate between the two...her acting was more than enough to do the trick.
More than anything else, though, this film was Craig Bierko's. In another's hands, the character of Timothy could've been just another interchangeable villain. His decision to play him with a more casual approach was just the right counterpoint to all of the action scenes. It isn't often that you find an actor who can express himself so well with just his facial expressions...point in case: the scene in the freezer with Charlie and her daughter. Where most films would've cluttered the moment of "revelation" with unnecessary dialogue, Bierko's eyes told the whole story.
The basic plot? Thin, to be truthful. A seemingly average housewife who suffers from amnesia slowly discovers that she had been an assassin. As her memory returns, so do the people who want the assassin dead. Is she really Samantha, the cookie baking housewife, or Charlie, the cold blooded assassin? Or maybe a little bit of both? For me, The Long Kiss Goodnight was an enjoyable journey to find out.