Smooth Talk

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 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.

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.

Laura Dern is perfect as lanky lass in a small town sparring with her parents, estranged from her older sister, desperate to be liked and to be with boys. Opening moments of this adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"--with Dern and friends doing the mall--are realistic but nothing too original; second portion of the film, with Laura meeting smooth talking Treat Williams (who comes dressed like the James Dean poster on Dern's wall) is elongated and dry (you can almost feel the director's confidence slipping away). It's an encounter I didn't particularly care for, nor did I buy the rosy ending either. However, there are fine moments in "Smooth Talk", the most devastating of which lies in a conversation between Dern and indifferent sis Elizabeth Berridge (in a terrific performance): Dern recalls a vivid, lovely childhood memory between the two, but after listening and thinking it over, Berridge tells her, "I don't remember..." **1/2 from ****

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.