THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996)

It’s said that those who introduce you to new music or new movies are some of the best people to have in life. “Variety is the spice of life” and whatnot. Revisiting those recommended pieces of art and entertainment can also draw out a sense of nostalgia. You never forget who told you about it and maybe you can remember the first time you watched the movie or played the album.

Writer Anaïs Nin sums it up well when she says that, “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

You can also never underestimate the significance of a good popcorn movie. Something that might not win awards for Best Screenplay or Best Actor but, dammit, we have fun watching it.

These films can hold the same emotional significance that you can find when you think about a romantic movie you watched with a partner or a comedy that you watched with a group of friends or the scary movie that you watched one night at a slumber party.

I cannot count how many times I watched TWISTER (1996), JAWS (1975), and CON AIR (1997) in my living room growing up, even though I was way too young to be watching two of those.

It was only last year that one of my oldest friends told me about a movie she loved called THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996). It didn’t take much to sell me on the film, directed by Renny Harlin from Shane Black’s script.

Samuel L. Jackson is a scene stealer in any movie he’s in. And I adore Gene Davis—BEETLEJUICE (1988) and A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992) are two of my favorites and I’ll never pass up an opportunity to sing the praises of the too-short-lived The Exorcist TV series.

To sum up, a teacher named Samantha (Davis) woke up eight years ago on a beach with no memory and two months pregnant. Years of hiring private detectives trying to piece her past life together have yielded no results. After leaving a Christmas party, Sam is in a car accident and is thrown through the windshield. In the days following the accident, certain “skills” begin to resurface—such as throwing knives with incredible, if chilling, accuracy.

After a past acquaintance breaks into her house to kill her family, Samantha kills him with her bare hands, much to the shock of her boyfriend and daughter.

Enter Mitch Henessy (Jackson), a gritty private detective who could finally lead Sam to the answers she’s been longing to find. Turns out, “Samantha” is actually a CIA assassin named Charlene "Charly" Baltimore.

After watching it, I’m in the camp that THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT needs to come up in every conversation where DIE HARD (1988)  is being defended as a Christmas movie. The badass action sequences, the quickdraw humor.

Then jump ahead to this year, on October 29th, said friend who had told me about THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT told me about her breast cancer diagnosis. I was at work and I asked if I could call her. She said yes even though she was a blubbering mess and I said that was okay because I was, too.

I was thankful I was pretty much alone in the warehouse that day because everything just stopped and I had just about dropped. I suppose I had been thinking about mortality among my friends and family more as I’ve gotten older but this was nothing I would have thought about in my worst dreams.

She’d probably hate the fact that all of this unfolding has had such a deep impact on me emotionally. I can also pretty much guarantee you that once I send her the link to this essay once it’s posted that she’ll roll her eyes but she’ll do it while smiling like mad. She’s an independent soul but she’ll appreciate it. Consider it part of my therapy journal entries through these times.

Once someone close to you introduces you to something new, it can stick with you.

Even after years, we can still have quirks or musical tastes that we’ve picked up from someone that passed through our lives, whether we like it or not.

I’m not thrilled that the first time I watched some of my now-favorite movies was with my ex but c'est la vie. Things are looking up at the time I’m typing this and I am thankful for that.

If you’re lucky, then you have positive experiences and good memories of those with whom you associate movies or music. If you’re extremely lucky, then those people are still in your life.