STRAIGHT TALK. Directed by Barnet Kellman; written by Craig Bolotin and Patricia Resnick; produced by Robert Chartoff and Fred Berner for Hollywood Pictures. Starring Dolly Parton and James Woods. Rated PG.
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Fans of Dolly Parton will really like Straight Talk. Her character is a downhome loser determined to turn her luck around—tailor-made for Parton's appealing, if one-dimensional, acting skills. And several of her original songs also punctuate the soundtrack at appropriate moments.
Aside from its being an ideal vehicle for Parton, Straight Talk is an enjoyable enough little movie. Were it not for the bizarre casting of Woods opposite her, it would be just another pleasant but unremarkable romantic comedy. But he is an actor usually as intense and multi-faceted as Parton is bubbly and uncomplicated.
With this very odd couple in place, Straight Talk travels into another dimension. Indeed, it sometimes feels a bit like the Twilight Zone. But Woods is a talented guy and he actually does a better job at light comedy than you might expect.
An actor with a lighter touch, though, would have made this a more comfortable movie, and perhaps a better one as well. Although its predictability and corniness would probably keep it firmly fixed in mediocrity no matter who was playing Parton's love interest.
Parton herself, on the other hand, is irreplaceable here. She plays Shirlee, an Arkansas hick trying to make her fortune in Chicago. Mistaken for a Ph.D., who is to take over a call-in radio show, she becomes an instant hit with her homespun advice and her punchy one-liners.
Woods is a reporter who starts out trying to expose Shirlee as a fraud, but—guess what!—he falls for her instead.
April 29, 1992