In the comedy “Straight Talk,” Dolly Parton stars as Shirlee Kenyon, a woman who’s seen some hard times and learned her lessons from them. When her live-in boyfriend announces that he really doesn’t have any intentions of getting married, she realizes that she can do a lot better. Quitting her job as a dance instructor, she packs up and comes to Chicago, where she hits the pavement. But finding a job in the big city isn’t as easy as she thought it would be.
Pausing to collect her thoughts on a bridge one day, she digs in her purse and discovers that she only has twenty dollars left. It flies out of her hand and lands on one of the bridge supports, so she climbs down to get it. Journalist Jack Russell (James Woods) sees her from his office window, thinks she’s trying to commit suicide, and goes dashing down to save her, nearly dumping her in the water himself. She’s not very grateful for his help, he’s irritated that she’s not grateful, and that’s how they meet.
Shirlee finally lands a job as the receptionist for a radio station, but the disk jockeys mistake her for the new therapist who’s starting a show that afternoon. They stick her on the air and she does great, dishing out no-nonsense advice to the callers. When she finds out they thought she was a doctor, she wants to tell everyone the truth, but her producer offers her some nice perks to stay and complete the job. Jack Russell, in the meantime, thinks there’s something fishy and decides to investigate, only to fall in love in the process.
There is a little bit of language and a small bit of innuendo, though nothing really offensive. I’d say this is more of a “Mommy movie” anyway and not one your children would really be interested in. You’ll enjoy it, though – it has some great moments of humor, even if it is a little odd to see Dolly Parton trying to play a sweet young thing at the age of 46, as she was when the film was made.
This movie is rated PG.
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