One-time super-model Geena Davis is super-sexy as amnesiac Samantha, the cute New England small-town home-maker and school-teacher making the switch to indestructible killer bitch, Charly Baltimore, her previous self. Both Hal (Tom Amandes), her small-town husband, and Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson), the street-wise private eye she teams up with, have to adjust to this change. Hal less so. He is simply shocked. But Mitch has to live with it 24/7 while they are on the run from the CIA together. “I liked Samantha,” he says at one point, shocked too. Yes, but he is falling in love with Charly.
For Charly is something of a superhero. Indestructible, as I say. And able to hold her breath for five minutes underwater (which reminds me of my previous post!) tied to a wheel in ice-cold temperatures – and after three immersions come up and kill the man who is doing this to her.
I remembered it from years ago. When I watched the DVD last night, I was particularly struck by one minor but it its own way stunning example of the contrast between Samantha and Charly, a modern and ultra-feminine Jekyll and Hyde.
- Samantha
It is the scene with the neighbourhood fat boy who is in the class she teaches at school.Early in the film she catches him smoking, speaks to him kindly, tells him smoking is harmful to his health. Later, sneaking into the town gun in hand to pick up something she needs, she catches him smoking, says, “What did I tell you about the dangers of smoking? Give me that,” takes two deep drags, passes it back to him, says “If you tell anybody you saw me here I’ll blow your head off,” and strides away. We watch the terrified kid piss himself.
Charly
Such details are the mark of a great screenplay (by Shane Black) as is the climax – one of the most dramatic climaxes I have ever seen in the cinema (don’t watch it if you have a dodgy heart) and the way that in the end she manages to integrate the two sides of her personality. Result: the perfect woman – as you see her on the farm at the end in this video clip.
