I first saw Smooth Talk four or five years ago on cable. I wasn't a teen anymore, but I remembered well how scary and awkward is was to be a teenage girl, so this movie commanded my attention from the beginning. The absolutely creepy performance by Treat Williams kept my attention and by the end, I knew I had seen something memorable. Through the last few years, I had managed to miss it a few times whenever it came on TV, but I was lucky enough to catch in on Showtime during a free preview weekend. Once again, I sat, glued to this film. My husband sat down next to me and watched it, too, and this is what we said about it:
me: So, what did you think?
Ryan: That was stupid.
me: What?
R: It felt like a Judy Blume book.
me: It was a Judy Blume book. (Actually, it was based on a book by Joyce Carol Oates, but by this time, i was too exasperated to explain who Joyce Carol Oates is)
R: Oh.
me: Didn't you think it was creepy? That guy (Arnold Friend, played by Treat Williams) was so scary.
R: His idea of drama was putting three second pauses between words. Laura Dern (who plays Connie, a 15-year-old girl) was kind of cute, though.
me: You just didn't understand.
R: What's to understand?
me: When you're a girl that age, you crave attention, and you go out of your way to get it, and when you do, it's very scary and you don't know how to handle it, and this movie is just so good at making you feel scared for her. And her mother was just such a horrible person and you could really sense how alone she felt.
R: Wait. Why was her mother horrible?
me: She paid no attention to her and only cared about her sister. Like that scene when they were leaving for the picnic. Connie didn't want to go and her mother was so mean about it. She said to her dad, "Just let her sit here and stew", like she didn't even care to know why she didn't want to go.
R: She deserved it. She was just being bratty.
me: I'm telling you, anybody who's ever been a teenage girl can relate to every scene in this movie. There are movies that can only be truly appreciated by a few people.
R: That's true. But every character was a walking cliche. The absentee father, the dumpy big sister...
me: The movie was about Connie, not her family. (Pause) What was really troublesome about Arnold was the way he appeared sincere and gentle on the outside, but you could just hear in his voice how crazy he was. He said he'd never lie, and he probably meant it, but he was clearly not playing with a full deck. He managed to talk her into leaving the house with him.
R: That was a stupid decision.
me: Exactly. But she felt it was the right one. That's what it's about when you're that age. What girl hasn't met a creepy guy like that? And he intimidated her just by standing outside the door. He wasn't chasing her, he wasn't threatening her, he was just standing there, talking to her.
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