Smooth Talk, the not so Smooth Movie

      Reading Where are you going, Where have you been? was very interesting and amusing to me so when I found out I was going to be able to watch the movie version, I was very excited. With its mystical twists, Where are you going, Where have you been? would be quite challenge to make into a film, yet Smooth Talk was made. Although the title of the movie sounds quite appealing, the movie itself was not so much.
      Smooth Talk did its best to portray WAYGWHYB to its fullest but sadly it was not enough. The best was to explain this is to break the movie down into segments. The movie was actually very accurate up until the ending and even had key, word-for-word dialogue. However, the movie also had many scenes that were so awkward it was painful like when Connie and her friend go out one night. While they are waiting at a restaurant, a young man comes up to Connie and asks her if she wants something to eat. Instead of answering or simple talking to him, she turns to him, bites her lower lip, and then turns back to talk to her friend. Despite such situations in the movie, the story and the film were very similar up until the end.
      In the story, the reader is left off with Connie leaving her home and family to go with Arnold Friend. However, her fate is never explicitly stated, therefore it is up to the reader if she lives or dies. In the movie, Connie goes with Arnold, but survives the Sunday drive, and even sees her family again. This small decision to have an actual ending in the movie and not a cliff hanger disappointed me. The whole point of the broad ending was to bring the reader into the story and for each individual to make their own ending. However, that was taken way in the movie and instead replaced with a fixed ending that may or may not have been the authors intentions. There were also some key details the movie failed to point out in the ending as well. In the book, Oates describes how Arnold has difficulty standing up on his own, but the movie states nothing on the subject. Plus, the scene where Connie picks up the phone and is overwhelmed by something supernatural is completely overlooked in the movie.
      Overall, Smooth Talk was an accurate movie except for the ending, and even though the movie was quite awkward at some points, it brought me much enjoyment.