Themes: Innocence Lost, Sexual Awakening, Suburban Dysfunction
Main Cast: Treat Williams, Laura Dern, Mary Kay Place, Levon Helm, Sarah Inglis, Elizabeth Berridge
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Produced for PBS' American Playhouse series, Smooth Talk was given a brief theatrical release before its "official" February 9, 1987 TV debut. Laura Dern plays a teenager anxious to experience the pleasures of sexual contact. Left alone in the family summer cottage when her mother (Mary Kay Place), father (Levon Helm) and sister (Elizabeth Berridge) go shopping, Dern decides to wander into town for male companionship. She makes the acquaintance of Treat Williams, a handsome if mildly psychotic type who identifies himself as "A. Friend" and behaves like James Dean. When she returns home, Dern is bewildered and dishevelled. We can only speculate as to whether or not she was raped by Williams; we do know that she isn't the same person we met at the beginning of the film. Smooth Talk was based on a 1970 short story by Joyce Carol Oates entitled "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Joy Carlin - Laura's Mother; Cab Covay - Pickup Driver; Michael French - Stan; Geoff Hoyle - Ellie; Mark McKay - Bobby King; David Michael O'Neill - Mall Boy; William Ragsdale - Jeff; Sally Schuab - Saleslady; Margaret Welsh - Laura; Darian Alioto - Mall Creep; David Berridge - Eddie; Rob Blair - Beach Boy; Craig Caddell - Mall Boy; Gary Harris - Mall Creep; Edgar Kahn - Beach Boy; Spenser Mains - Eddie's Friend; Carl Mueller - Mall Boy; Michael Vaughn - Leroy; William Desmond - Laura's Dad
Credit
Carol Oditz - Costume Designer, Joyce Chopra - Director, Patrick Dodd - Editor, Russ Kunkel - Composer (Music Score), George Massenburg - Composer (Music Score), Bill Payne - Composer (Music Score), James Taylor - Musical Direction/Supervision, Natalie Mucyn - Makeup, David Wasco - Production Designer, James Glennon - Cinematographer, Lidsay Law - Producer, Timothy Marx - Producer, Martin Rosen - Producer, Robert Joyce - Set Designer, Rocky Capella - Stunts, Tom Cole - Screenwriter, Joyce Carol Oates - Short Story Author
Connie Wyatt is a restless 15-year-old who is anxious to experiment the pleasures of her sexual awakening. Before she enters her sophomore year in high school, she spends the summer moping around her family cottage. She suffers her mother's put-downs while hearing nothing but praise for her older sister June. Her father somehow manages to float around the family tensions. She helps paint the cottage just as her mother constantly demands her to.
Connie passes the time cruising shopping malls with her friends and flirting with boys. When an actual date leads to heavy petting, however, she flees from his car. At a hamburger joint, an older man confides to her "I'm watching you!", and proves it soon after. One afternoon, her mother and June warn Connie to be careful with her flirting, and she is left alone in the cottage when her family goes to a barbecue.
After Connie is playing around the house, a man named Arnold Friend approaches her and identifies himself as "A. Friend". He dresses and acts like James Dean and name-drops several teeny bopper acts, even though he is much older than she is. She thinks about taking a ride with him, but after he persuades her into doing so, she does so out of fear, while his friend remains in the house.
When she returns home, Connie is bewildered and disheveled, but tells Arnold that she never wants to see him again. It is left ambiguous whether or not he raped her; it is implied that she isn't the same person we met at the beginning of the film. After her family returns home, her mother tearfully apologizes to her for slapping her, but Connie reassures her that everything is all right. At the end of the film, she never tells June about what happened, but dances with her to James Taylor's music.
