Film Facts
Directed by Renny Harlin
Released in 1996
MPAA Rating: R
Reviewed by Mongo
Film Review - Long Kiss Goodnight, The
So there you are, a normal American school teacher with amnesia, giving a friend a ride home after a Christmas party. A deer appears from nowhere in the middle of the road. You hit it, get thrown from the car, and wake up remembering you're a assassin working for the CIA. It could happen.
After you wake up a master assassin, obviously someone will want to kill you, so there's nothing left to do but go on a road trip! Charley, (great name for a woman assassin) still doesn't have all the pieces to the puzzle. She doesn't know what her mission was nor why people are trying to kill her.
Samuel L. Jackson plays a great sidekick. He's the private dick the school teacher hired before hitting the deer to find out who she really is. He's on the shady side, and makes no apologies for who he is. He thinks himself a tough guy, but soon finds out what a small fry he really is. In the end, he's tougher than he ever thought.
You'd have a hard time sympathizing with Charley if you hadn't met the school teacher first. She's All-American apple pie, with a wonderful daughter. Charley learns that the school teacher is as much a part of her as the tough as nails killer. When the daughter is put in peril, the two personalities merge. The woman becomes whole.
This is another of those movies where we set aside reality, because no one could do all this and still be alive. But this is a fun movie with really great dialogue. Watch it on pizza night when your buddies come over.