Walk The Talk

A well-meaning but misguided talent agent uses his paraplegic girlfriend's government compensation to fund his quest to resurrect a faded club singer's career.




A con man discovers there is something he can't sell — namely, a sour-voiced singer he's trying to mold into a star — in this bittersweet comedy about the outer fringes of show business. Joey Grasso (Salvatore Coco) is an almost pathologically confident man who has just been released from prison after doing time for selling a phony cure for cellulite. Joey lives with his current girlfriend, Bonita (Sacha Horler), who is confined to a wheelchair due to an auto accident, though her father is convinced Joey is only interested in her for the $1 million settlement Bonita is due to receive. One day, at a motivational seminar, Joey makes the acquaintance of Nikki (Nikki Bennett), the daughter of popular nightclub performer Marty Raye (Carter Edwards). Nikki confesses to Joey that she wants more than anything to make it big as a singer, and Joey signs on as her manager, fast-talking a reluctant Bonita into bankrolling Nikki's bid for stardom. However, Nikki isn't a terribly good singer, and is a bit unstable to boot; after an audition for record producer Phil Wehner (Jon English) ends in disaster, Joey discovers just how steep an uphill climb he has in selling Nikki to the public. Walk the Talk was the second feature written and directed by Shirley Barrett, whose debut, Love Serenade, earned her the Camera d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
— Mark Deming




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