My Favorite Films: The Long Kiss Goodnight

While I'm on vacation, I've left behind a list of my favorite films--in no particular order.

#5 on my list of favorite films is an action adventure you've probably never heard of before. It's the 1996 movie, The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Geena Davis plays a woman named Samantha Caine. Eight years earlier, she was found unconscious on a beach at the foot of a cliff. She was pregnant and had no memory of who she once was.

In the eight years since, although her memory never returned, Samantha built a life for herself and her little girl. She teaches and is engaged to marry another teacher. She's also been paying a cut-rate detective named Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson) to find clues to her past.

When the film opens, Samantha takes part in a winter festival by riding on a float in a parade. The news clip gets nationwide coverage, and some very nasty bad guys see photos of her. They have unfinished business and come looking to kill her.

With skills she didn't know she had, Samantha saves herself and her daughter. Realizing it is now urgent that she find out who she once was, she and Mitch set off to track down her past.

It turns out that Samantha was once a spy named Charly Baltimore. She was on the trail of a traitor when she was shot and fell off a cliff. Now Samantha needs to relearn all of Charly's skills in order to keep herself and Mitch alive.

This was just a fun romp. It was also the last film I talked my father into watching with me before he died. We had a wonderful afternoon, sitting together and watching the DVD.

I found several video clips, but decided the trailer gave a better overall sense of the film.

By the way, Craig Bierko, the villain in this movie, would have been my choice to play the villain in the new Die Hard #4 movie. I thought the kid who did play the villain was way too young. But that was my only quibble with Live Free or Die Hard.

Enjoy.