Bedrohliches Geflüster

The movie is for the most part was good. I recommend reading the short story which it is based on before you see the movie. The movie sticks to the plot for the most part, but there are a few differences that shouldn't have been added in. The roles of the parents were good and accurately got across the ideas that Connie disliked in them. Laura Dern as Connie did an average job of portraying Connie, the shallow 15 year old. Treat Williams was excellent as the disturbing Arnold Friend. The biggest problem with this film is they gave it a Hollywood "happily ever after" which is completely different from the dark ending of the story. "Where you are going, where have you been" is a very good story and is much darker than "Smooth Talk" but if you are a fan of the story, check this out to compare.

A few things I liked about this movie: It stayed fairly close to the story.

The terror element in the scenes between Connie (Dern) and Arnold Friend (Williams) were present, as were in the short story by Joyce Carol Oates.

Laura Dern's performance was excellent, as a young girl experimenting with flirtations as she becomes aware of her budding sexuality. But something happens one day...

Somehow, inadvertently, she attracted the attention of "Arnold Friend". (If you remove the R's from his name you find his true nature).

SHe's afraid to come out of her house...she's afraid to stay inside, because he'd come in and get her. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, the same way it did when I first saw Carole Kane pick up the phone to hear "Are you in the house alone?"

I also like the way a lot of the Symbolism of JCO's original story remains intact.

What I don't like:

Treat Williams should not have been cast as Arnold Ariend. It should have been played by somebody far less attractive, and far more creepy.

They changed the ending. fine enough, as it would be hard to recapture the ending as written by Oates. However, the new ending made no sense.

4 out of 5 stars ;-)

This film is one of the most realistic "coming of age" films I have seen. In fact, parts of it gave me deja vu when I remembered the summer of my 15th year when my best friend and I first discovered we were attractive to men and didn't know quite what to do with that knowledge, as we made the transition from "little girl" to "woman." The main character, Connie, is clearly torn between wanting to bond with and be a part of her family and wanting to exert her independence, and trying to balance all of her roles as she grows up. The best part of the film - which is a small moment actually, but very powerful - is when Connie plays James Taylor's Handy Man and her mother listens to it in another part of the house - that scene shows that mother and daughter are both going through "growing pains." Although the ending was a downer, it is worth seeing the film for Laura Dern's brilliant performance.

This film showed the arrival of Laura Dern, one of the most gifted actresses of her generation, to full realization. Under Joyce Chopra's direction, Ms. Dern proved she could carry this picture, as well as any other, just on the strength of her portrayal of Connie, the rebellious California teen ager, who experiences life and cruelty in ways she never expected.

If anything, the film might send some viewers to read some of Joyce Carol Oates novels for she is an original and important voice in American letters. Ms. Joyce is a prolific and generous writer who shows a sensibility toward young women in trouble, as it was the case with her magnificent "We Were the Mulvaneys", among other novels.

When we first meet Connie, she seems to be a careless teen ager from rural California, hanging in the local mall with her best friends Jill and Laura. There is trouble at home. Connie is a rebel and her relationship with her mother, Katherine, is not exactly the best. Connie is seen with Laura experiencing with local boys the rituals of flirting.

Connie gets much more than what she bargains for, when the mysterious Arnold Friend keeps turning at the hamburger joint where she hangs out with Laura. Arnold is a creepy individual who, being older, and more experienced man in matters of sex, shows up one Sunday, while her family is away, to entice the young girl with his "smooth talk". This long sequence shows Connie as the vulnerable young woman she is, accosted by a young man intent in getting what he wants.

To say that Laura Dern is perfect in the film, is not to do her justice. She is the whole movie. Her expressions, her reactions, are nothing short of what one would expect from a young woman in the same situation. Treat Williams makes a great appearance as the menacing Arnold. Mary Kay Place, as the mother is also good, as well as the rest of the ensemble playing cast.

Joyce Chopra shows she is a director who likes to takes risks by creating an original film out of Ms. Oates short story.

The really remarkable thing about Smooth Talk is just how true to life it is. Whilst I haven't been a teenage girls in the 1980s, I am currently a teenager. And let me just say that this is EXACTLY how it feels to be one. I can't count all the times that I've seen movies like High School Musical or Sixteen Candles, where the insights into teenage life are about as deep as a kiddie pool. Smooth Talk, on the other hand, paints a realistic portrait of how it feels to chase after people because it feels like the most important thing to have a partner. It gives insight into teenager's troubled relationships with their parents, and (very intelligently) doesn't entirely put the blame on either party. Everything from the acting to the writing to the directing just screams "this is what it's like to be a teenager." And frankly, it earns the right to do so.

That's how the first two thirds of the film are, with stakes about as high as any other teen movie. But then the last act changes things up a bit. It sneaks up on you, and without realizing it you were lured into a false sense of security. But Smooth Talk's goal isn't to be a fun teen film: it's to show you what it's really like to be a teenage girl. So the dark side of reality sets in during the last half hour, and you are left with more empathy for women than you came in with. This is the power of films: they can put you in the shoes of someone like no other medium. And Smooth Talk takes full advantage of that.

Overall, Smooth Talk is smarter than most teen movies, but no less interesting. I'd recommend it to anyone: kids wanting to see what it's like to be a teenager, adults wanting to revisit the past, and teens who just want to see themselves on screen.

Final Score: 84/100.