Admirable film.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

"Smooth Talk" is a strange, languid coming-of-age movie that makes a surprising shift into thriller territory toward the end.It's about a young girl, played by Laura Dern, who has a strained relationship with her mother. She lies to her about where she is going so that she can go hang out with her friends. She flirts with boys, and some of these encounters are harmless and fun. Others are threatening.At a party she meets a strange man in passing who tells her he is watching. We don't know how she feels about this, but if the encounter is expected to generate suspense, it doesn't. You might not even notice.Later, the guy (played by Treat Williams) shows up, acting like a refugee from a generic thriller. The scene isn't scary, but the characters talk for so long that you don't know if it's supposed to be. Wouldn't she be scared to the point of ending the conversation?The thriller aspect is handled so negligibly that you are left only with the teen girl angst stuff, which is also just not that interesting or convincing.

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.

Such a cliche, I know. But it was better--much more powerful. I agree with those who say that the screenwriter shouldn't have monkeyed with the ending. As it is, the ending is a trite piece of moralistic crap.The original ending was powerful, indeterminate, and disturbing. The story, BTW, is based on the murderous career of Charles Starkweather (I think it was) back in 1950's Texas. The character of Arnold Friend (Treat Williams) is Oates' take on this serial killer. Except that now he's not a serial killer.I agree with those who say that the acting is very well done, particularly by Laura Dern and Treat Williams. And the screenplay sticks close to the story until the very end. God knows who is responsible for the change. It could be the screenwriter, or it could be the producer or director (or their girl/boyfriends). It seems, tho, that Oates, as co-screenwriter, went along with the change. Maybe she just didn't want to be difficult.The original story was both disturbing and subtle, with a lot of effective symbolism. I recommend it.

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.