This movie stars one of my favorite entertainers. She hails from the same state I do. Now if you ask me to be "impartial" and say whether she is a good actress or not, I cant. Dolly Parton is someone that I cant judge impartially. She is one of those that I look up. Why? Because she has survived for 40 plus years in the Country Music genre and was there when I was growing up. I still remember her on the Porter Wagner Show.

That being said, I loved this movie. While some might say, with some degree of justification that she plays "Dolly Parton" in every part she plays (kind of like Mae West played Mae West in every role), her movies speak to the human heart in ways that are very powerful.

In Straight Talk, she stars opposite James Wood, and is a hillbilly woman escaping a dead end life in a dead end and dying town in Arkansas for Chicago. There is a series of mishaps that results in her becoming "Doctor Shirley", a talk show host where she wows her audience with her insightful and down to earth advice. She advices one woman who is going on and on about how the people around her have mistreated her by saying "lady, come on down off the cross, somebody needs the wood".

James Wood plays a reporter trying to get the "real story". The question quickly becomes, will he remain a hard nosed reporter or will he fall in love with Shirley right along with her radio audience. The person of Shirley is referred to as a "Doctor of the heart" in this movie, which I suggest is a "movie of the heart". A must see, but only if you are willing to face emotionally moving topics.