Straight Talk
| Straight Talk | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Barnet Kellman |
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| Written by | Craig Bolotin |
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| Cinematography | Peter Sova |
| Edited by | Michael Tronick |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $21,202,099 |
Straight Talk is an 1992 American romantic comedy film distributed by Hollywood Pictures, directed by Barnet Kellman and starring Dolly Parton and James Woods. Parton did not receive solo star-billing in any other theatrically released films until the 2012 film Joyful Noise, alongside Queen Latifah. Her previous starring films had been 9 to 5 (1980), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Rhinestone (1984), and Steel Magnolias (1989).
Shirlee Kenyon is a down-home country girl who, through a series of mistakes, is hired as a radio talk show host. Her show is wildly successful but her success is based on the lie that she is actually a clinical psychologist. She has to learn that giving advice and following it can be harder than she'd thought.
Shirlee starts off in the film as a dance instructor living in Arkansas. After she is fired for giving advice to her clients rather than teaching them dance, she attempts to convince her common-law husband (Michael Madsen) to move to Chicago with her. After he declines and then belittles her, she decides to move there without him.
Once she arrives, she is standing on a bridge enjoying the view of the city when she accidentally drops a twenty-dollar bill. As she climbs over the rail in an attempt to retrieve the money, Jack (James Woods), an investigative journalist, sees her from the office window of the newspaper for which he works, and assumes that she is trying to commit suicide. He runs out to rescue her, but as he attempts to grab her and "save" her, Shirlee loses her balance, and almost falls into the water below; she loses the money she had been trying to recover. After they recover, and she informs Jack that she'd, in fact, not been attempting suicide, but was merely trying to recover a twenty dollar bill, Jack tries to give her money, saying she must need it more than he if she is willing to risk her life to retrieve it. She refuses and the two part. A bit later the same morning, Shirlee stops into a cafe for breakfast, and strikes up a conversation with another customer, Janice (Teri Hatcher), who is annoyed at having been stood up by her boyfriend the previous evening. Shirlee tells Janice that he is taking her for granted, and advises her to end the relationship, only to realize that Janice's boyfriend is, in fact, Jack; Jack shows up, and Janice tells him she no longer wants to see him, adding that Shirlee has helped her to realize how much Jack takes her for granted. Jack thanks Shirlee for "wrecking his entire day", as he exits the cafe.
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