“Laura Smiles” offers a strikingly effective depiction of a woman’s descent into mental turmoil. We first meet Laura during the happiest period of her life, deeply in love with her fiancé (played charmingly by Kip Pardue) in the city, who is truly the love of her life. Through a series of flashbacks, we witness the tender evolution of their relationship, presented in a non-linear fashion. These vibrant and colorful memories forcefully intrude upon her later years, as she is overwhelmed by guilt and regret over what happened to him. These emotions begin to overshadow her current existence as a wife and mother. Mundane events in her “suburban drudgery”—like shopping, cooking, cleaning, or attending a school play—trigger memories of the past, leading her to behave increasingly erratically in an attempt to cope with the emotions they stir. This becomes especially pronounced when she can no longer separate past from present or reality from dreams, reminiscent of Blanche Du Bois.