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. 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.The links to the full text of the story and to the Oates' article about adapting it to the film are posted on the movie's message board. I was shocked to find out what the real story behind the fictional was.

The Joyce Carol Oates story this movie is based on, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You been" would have made an excellent thirty minute short. But to make it into a feature length film a lot of padding was necessary, and the sort of padding used was of the banal, coming of age sort you've probably seen in dozens of television programs and movies already.Laura Dern is well cast as the blonde, leggy teen-aged Connie, a typical teenaged girl who is neither particularly likable nor unlikable when she and her gaggle of female friends tentatively strut and giggle around boys at a local mall (the drive-in sixties of Joyce's story is updated easily enough to the shopping mall eighties). Later, when she is home alone with Arnold Friend, the very bad character all that flirting has inadvertently attracted (Oates based him on an actual serial killer, Charles Howard Schmid, who murdered several teens in Tucson, Arizona in the mid sixties) she is very convincing when she is shaking and crying for her mother. Oates' story ends with a terrorized Connie departing with Arnold--her fate is unknown, but going by Arnold's threats and crude, brutal banter it seems more likely than not that Connie will be raped and killed. However, in the movie, Connie is brought back home by Arnold a few hours later, a bit shaken but not particularly the worse for wear--in fact she is more thoughtful and kind than she was before towards her nattering mother (well played by Mary Kay Place) and frumpy older sister. In other words, we have gone from Oates to Degrassi High and the horror that characterized the second half of Oates' text (and that the first half was leading up to) has been pretty much bled out of the story."Smooth Talk" is worth checking out for the strong performance of Laura Dern in an early role but don't expect Oates.

I was impressed with Laura's acting and thought she portrayed the difficulty of dealing with coming of age in a touching and realistic manner. Her hormones outpaced her friends noticeably and that put her at odds with her closest friends and also made her the target of males far beyond her abilities to understand and defend herself from. My daughter is now grown and survived her teen years quite well. I thought of this film often during those years and am thankful she did not develop early and that she had sufficient parenting to avoid characters such as Treat played. I have not found this movie available on tape or disc and feel that that is a great loss.

It's a cautionary tale from the rich old white men of Hollywood (and from JCO, whom I've never quite trusted anyway): Women, don't leave the house! It's a dangerous world out there! Starts out as a quality flick, and it captures *perfectly* this totally giddy, intoxicating stage of life where you're a kid in an adult body, kissing boys and buying sexy clothes. Then it becomes practically every movie ever made, and the young woman is punished terribly for her sexual curiosity. So terribly that we infer she will wind up a reclusive old maid, like her sister, and stay living with her parents til a very late age indeed. I call it Thelma and Louise syndrome. Will someone please give me a movie about a strong woman, in charge of her life and her sexuality, who is not physically or spiritually killed in the end? Sheesh!