Geena Davisas Samantha Caine / Charly BaltimoreThe story
About The Long Kiss Goodnight
A small-town schoolteacher and mother who has no memory of her life before eight years ago starts to recover it after a knock to the head in the run-up to Christmas. With a down-at-heel private investigator in tow, she discovers she was once a government assassin, and her old employers want her gone. Renny Harlin directs Shane Black's script, with Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson leading.
The CineClaus verdict
Shane Black treats Christmas the way he usually does, as the cosy life somebody is about to lose.
Geena Davis is terrific on both sides of a split identity, and Samuel L. Jackson gets the best of the bickering. The violence is brutal and the tone gleefully cynical, and the season thins out badly across a long middle stretch on the road.
Tinsel at either end, a nineties action film in between. Far better than its box office suggests, and a smart pick for anyone who wants their Christmas action with a heroine at the centre.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: older teenagers at the very least: it's a 15 for strong bloody violence and threat, including torture and a child in danger.
BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence and threat.
Content advice & accessibility
- Where the advice comes from
- The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 15 certificate, and never looser than it.
- Subtitles
- Check your chosen service and edition for supported tracks.
