La prima volta

I was impressed with Laura's acting and thought she portrayed the difficulty of dealing with coming of age in a touching and realistic manner. Her hormones outpaced her friends noticeably and that put her at odds with her closest friends and also made her the target of males far beyond her abilities to understand and defend herself from. My daughter is now grown and survived her teen years quite well. I thought of this film often during those years and am thankful she did not develop early and that she had sufficient parenting to avoid characters such as Treat played. I have not found this movie available on tape or disc and feel that that is a great loss.

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 ;-)

"Smooth Talk" spends the first half of its run time developing the Dern character, showing her to be a typically (more or less) rebellious, angst-filled, brittle teen who is just discovering boys and dating when an unexpected encounter with a smooth talker (Williams) forces her to take a quantum leap toward maturity. A simple little serious-minded indie with a thin story and not so thin message, "SM" is a slow starter with a solid performance by Dern which will likely be most appreciated by females. B-

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.

This was definitely somewhat different to what I had expected. The performances are exquisite, Laura Dern proving she had enormous talent at such a young age. She's fantastic here, infusing her character with the much needed charm and likability it needed, while also proving to be strong-willed and vulnerable in her own way. She certainly had a great year in 1985, with between this and Mask, and it's great to see some of the acting notes she would come to perfect even later on in her career. The supporting cast is nicely balanced and also provides some strong work. The film is contemplative and calm, and the sentiment at the end is very well-earned, such a great final scene to go along with the rest of what the film was actually doing.