Smooth Talk (1985)
Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, finds her summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
The Worst Film Ever
Sorry, this movie sucks
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
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 ;-)
I just read some of the other comments about it not making sense. Perhaps looking things up before deciding that it doesn't make sense would be more intelligent. The numbers on the car, for instance, make chilling sense when you bother to find out what it symbolizes. This is a good movie, but a better story. I'd recommend reading it first.
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.
Does this film have any point? Any plot? Does it make ANY sense to any one? I do not recommend this movie, this movie left us feeling very disturbed, to say the least. This movies only known purpose is to stupefy its audience with its perplexed meaning (if there actually is a meaning at all) For anyone who actually pretends to understand "Smooth Talk" one only has to watch the film with to prove them wrong. I seriously question weather even the actors in this movie could make sense of it. Watch with Caution, if you bother to watch at all.