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Show Park Record Thursday, February 6, 1986 Page B11 ? ; 'I ' 1 a; A p ; '-m , .- Laura Dern (left) and her two best friends play hooky in "Smooth Talk." U.S. Film Festival honoree 'Smooth Talk' is teen heat Smooth Talk When Joyce Chopra stepped to the podium to accept an award as director direc-tor of the winner in the narrative category of the United States Film Festival, she praised her actors. People said 'You got a great performance per-formance from Laura Dern.'" she hegan. Her reply to the comment was that she had great actors to work with in Dern. Treat Williams and Mary Kay Place. Dern plays a dreamy teenager eiv joying and fearing her first taste of M-nsuality. Against a backdrop of the mall-and-beach culture of California, her first encounters with boys are ones she can control. Then she meets Arnold Friend. Dern travels in a kind of soft, wulhed cloud of introspection, moving mov-ing slowly and deliberately away (mm innocence to her rendezvous with sexual d i s c o v c r y with Williams. "I look into your eyes and all I see arc trashy daydreams." says Place as her mother. She is both sympathetic sym-pathetic and resentful of her daughter's self-absorption and aloofness. She taunts her-younger daughter in league with the older ffleiKllzalWtti'P.eHMdge'''' '""!"h As Dern's sexuality blossoms in Ihe long summer, Berridge who lacks Dern's humid glow and heal angrily withdraws from her, pretending not to recall their closeness as youngsters. "You're going go-ing to have it all. aren't you. And you think you deserve it." On a day when Dern is alone in the house, Williams as Friend, who has hacked her summer of tentative ex ploration from a distance, pulls up in his convertible, lie lures her out of Ihe safely beyond the screen door and into the car with a hypnotic, disturbed intensity that you feel almost as an overture to rape. The screenplay was adapted by Tom Cole from a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, known for her somewhat harrowing, Gothic 'Miches. It is almost too slight a story for your patience. Arnold ''fiend is too dangerous, Dern too erazily victimized by his eroticism. But the overblown elements in the mwie don't completely bury the S'd, true things-no one who lived through the hormone storms of Quickies Kn?7oom i. Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Murphy's Romance (not yet rated) Out of Africa Youngblood (not yet rated) adolescence can forget the excitement excite-ment you- feel here. The only problem pro-blem is that it goes beyond what you perceive as normal sexuality sex-uality Dern's sweet ripeness to Williams' urgent, troubling tyranny. But Chopra was right about her performers. Williams is terrifyingly seductive and dangerous. Dern is pliant and awed by her new feelings. But. still, you come away unsatisfied. un-satisfied. You just can't believe what you are supposed to believe happened on the sunny hill near Ihe convertible could really have happened hap-pened to your, or anyone else's, teenage sell'. KM Out of Africa "Out of Africa" may succeed more than any other film in giving a romantic aura to the equatorial Dark Continent. Sydney Pollack's sweeping direction and David Watkins' photography make it a land of great mountains, quietly gripping green fields, savagebeautiful animals and native chants floating over the night air. Meryl Streep's performance doesn't so much dominate this land as guide us through it. She plays Karen Blixen, who marries a Danish nobleman (Klaus Maria Brandauer) out of convenience and settles with him at his estate in Kenya. In her experiences which she wrote about later under her pseudonym, Isak Dinesen she finds peace, beauty, terror and struggle in the land. Streep is a good reflection of all those moods. She is a woman of both plaintive needs and strong will. A recommendation for the picture. however, has to be qualified. This is a movie with a languid romantic mood. It has a dreaminess that isn't lor everyone, but I liked if. A major problem here, however, is with Robert Redford as adventurer adven-turer Denys Finch Hatton. who pops in and out of Karen's life through the years, and eventually becomes her lover. Redford doesn't adopt a British accent and is nothing more than his movie persona presentably handsome, hand-some, well-spoken, noble and passionate. pas-sionate. When Streep goes on a dream safari with Redford, the picture pic-ture looks like a modern woman's fantasy of a trek with a movie idol. Dinesen's vision is still there, but it is diluted. Redford has his moments like a nice drunk scene in which his normally nor-mally self-assured character seems to be on slippery ground but moslty he doesn't hold up his end of the picture. pic-ture. German actor Klaus Maria Brandauer Bran-dauer is more of a match for Streep, as the husband who ignores her and fools around with other women. He is so equatable in his irresponsibility, irresponsibili-ty, however, that the two manage to maintain a lukewarm relationship . even while their marriage disintegrates. Also compelling is Ihe bond of friendship and loyalty between Streep and the African tribe that lives on her estate. The picture has a problem with its length and it tends to underline its points too much. When Streep leaves Africa, the tender farewells seem to linger forever. Pollack's romantic epic will linger longer, though, in the memory KB A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only 1 'jify .... -. v ;y . t v ' ' i . I 1 r : he 'ea art . - t.T.- ; the pi;Ko. Hook II" opens at the Knyptian Theatre on When Tins .s tin u . (o Valentme's Ia hu I ; ' , Jennifpr Par, -s jm. choose trom hi h A-1 F t h c,arke js Radawn T Man,()U :;Sd;;!r." I'arleys parents have found for him. Cur-tain Cur-tain time is 7::50 p.m. on I-eh. 11. ' trAigr, . ..p. fmUf. m n-ni) , g,;- nii--iBi Cik itmm'iairt'i rf"' 1 -mf "IT" tj r irniiai'-'ii iHWIHi - mi ' 1 1 ri fm mi . . Skiers Buffet Breakfast $5.50 Serving a traditional American Dinner Menu from 5:00 p.m. daily Our new bar & lounge will be serving Apre Ski Hors d' oeuvres while you enjoy our big screen TV 649-1937 yzs Jy conference Center LOCATED AT THE BASE OF PARK CITY SKI AREA ' IN THE SHADOW RIDGE HOTEL r.fi KM II II J HI If you have just moved to Park City, we'd like you to receive our newspaper for two months absolutely free. There are probably a lot of things you want to learn about Park City, and reading the Park Record on a regular basis is certainly the best way to find out. Whether you're searching for a job or permanent lodgings, trying to decide where to shop or what the schools here are like, the Park Record lets you find out in the least amount of time. In fact, we think two months free will convince you to become a regular subscriber. rl 1 Just stop by the Park Record office at 1670 Bonanza Drive in Prospector Square and we'll sign you up. And welcome to Park Citv! |