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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 22692
Released: December 7, 2004 |
| Our Price: $2.78 |
| Used Price: $2.75 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Fifteen-year-old Connie Wyatt (Laura Dern) may be too young to drive, but she's already driving the boys crazy. Her suspicious mother (Mary Kay Place) wants to keep her safely at home, but free-spirited Connie would rather while away the languid summer days hanging out with her friends and flirting with boys at the local burger stand. But when she flirts with an older, handsome and predatory stranger (Treat Williams), she isn't prepared for the frightening and traumatic consequences.
Smooth Talk Reviews:
Lolita-1980's style. 
2008-09-18 - The cinematography is a real pleasure for the eye. Some of the scenes of the old farmhouse, the sky, and Connie (Laura Dern) just sitting on a porch swing doing nothing but musing to herself are exquisitely composed.
There are some awkward scenes in this film version of the famous Joyce Carol Oates story, "Where are you going? Where have you been?", mainly because the original short story was set in the 1950's and the film is set in the 1980's thus the James Dean posters in Connie's room, the fact that Arnold Friend (Treat Williams) is a James Dean look-a-like who drives a muscle car, and that all the high school kids hang out at the local drive-in seem out of place in the 1980's. And yet, even with the anachronisms, as an evocation of a certain time of life it still works.
Granted, most of the film is pretty much just a set up for the climactic smooth talking seduction scene that arrives very late in the film but that one scene is tremendous and well worth the wait.
The film does not go where the Oates' story went, rather it leaves things up in the air and allows the viewer to interpret the climactic scene in a number of ways. The not knowing whether anything did happen or not is strangely powerful though (and, as others have mentioned, Oates' herself approved of the ending).
My take on the ending: Its as if Connie has come up against someone capable of voicing and embodying her own inner desires and this experience allows her to confront as well as get a handle on the exact nature of those desires. So, its a coming-of-age moment (but one that may or may not have just been a fantasy).
The film has some definite weaknesses, but recommended because there are a handful of scenes that do capture that moment (here the summer between freshman and sophomore year) when some teenagers feel like they are ready to cross a certain threshold, but wise enough to realize that they are really not ready to actually cross it all the way. This film, cleverly, gives the viewer that exhilerating and frightening thrill of crossing into forbidden territory without actually having to go there.
So, recommended, but with a few qualifications.
The Star Was Born
2007-04-11 -
Since I read Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" many years ago as a teenager myself (many Oates' works were translated to Russian - she was and I hope still is very popular there), I've been fascinated by it. I've read many Oates's stories and some of her novels but the 10 pages long story of 15 years old Connie, "shallow, vain, silly, hopeful, doomed-- but capable nonetheless of an unexpected gesture of heroism at the story's end" has stuck in my memory and I could never forget it. I was shocked to find out what the real story behind the fictional was.
When I found out that the story was adapted to the screen, I tried to find the movie, "Smooth Talk" (1985) directed by Joyce Chopra and I saw it finally last weekend. A disturbing coming of age drama, the winner of The Grand Jury Prize at 1986 features 18 years-old Laura Dern who appears innocent, gawky, and provocative all at once. Laura owns the film as a sultry woman-child who just began to realize the power of her sexual attractiveness during one long summer that would change her life forever. It does not surprise me a bit that Dern's next movie would be David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" where she played sweet and innocent Sandy and in a few years she would play her best role, Lula Fortune in his "Wild at Heart" (1990). The more I think of Laura, the more I see her as one of the most talented actresses of her generation. She is fearless in taking sometimes unflattering roles and she never lost that aura of innocence wrapped in irresistible sexuality that made her Connie in "Smooth Talk" so alive and unforgettable.
Great acting Great movie 
2005-12-28 - I am a senior citizen but this story and the acting brought up the feelings of when I was a teenager. A real tour de force IMO of what happens to a young girl and her awakening..the manipulation. The confused thoughts that are going thru her mind.
Old or young viewer can feel the emotion in both Treet Williams and Laura Dern as she both struggles with good and bad while he twists and turns to control her.
A small slice of life, but true and with excellent feeling.
Short Story Fans Will Be Disappointed 
2005-09-22 - Leave it to the movie industry to completely sanitize an artfully crafted and disturbing story about a conflicted teen's coming of age and sexual awakening. When I discovered that there was a film adaptation of this Oates' story and that it had been casted with the seductive and cagey Laura Dern, I expected, at the very least, that the basic storyline would have been preserved. That Chopra changed the ending of this classic short story is truly disappointing--Ms. Oates, how could you allow it? The sappy love-hate relationship between Connie and her mother is phony, the actress who played Connie's weird sister could use more than a few more drama lessons, and the character of Arnold Friend has been reduced to a dorky and only slightly creepy Rick Springfield look-a-like. This film project should have been handed to David Lynch.
Don't Miss This Performance Laura Dern Fans
2005-08-27 - Adapted from the short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been", by Joyce Carol Oates; this slow paced and moody film is for those who like introspective stories where you spend a lot of the viewing time in self-analysis rather than character identification. The mood is complemented by a lot of James Taylor on the soundtrack with "Handyman" repeated several times.
It is also one of those "axe to grind" films where fans of the short story feel compelled to whine about the adaptation not being faithful to their interpretation of the book, although Oates endorses it without reservation on her website. Any non-readers considering viewing "Smooth Talk" would be wise to remember the source when reading negative comments from this group.
To reach feature length it was necessary to expand on the short story and to dramatically depict events that are just briefly mentioned in the original version. Everything is still told from the point-of-view of 15-year-old Connie, increasingly estranged from her mother and marveling at her new-found attractiveness to boys. Fans of Laura Dern who have not seen this should seek it out as she gives an remarkable performance, arguably her all time best. Perfectly cast physically as a gangly coming of age teenager Dern plays Connie with such restraint and awkward hesitancy that anyone with acting for the camera aspirations should view this simply as a perfect example of the power that can be produced by underplaying a character.
The ending is restrained as well, making it unexpectedly powerful and haunting. They go out with Connie and her sister slowly dancing to "Handyman", leaving the viewer to process what has been shown and what has been implied.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
