Directed by
Noam Murro
93 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
Smart People
Synopsis: Dr Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a widower, living with his aspiring poet son James (Ashton Holmes) and acid-tongued cynical daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page). He teaches literature at the university and is so entrenched in his world of academia that he cannot relate much to anyone outside it. When his adopted freeloading brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) lobs in to live with the family things begin to change, and even more so when Lawrence remeets Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker) an old student of his and now a doctor at the local hospital’s emergency ward.Self-deprecating dysfunctional family films are a dime a dozen these days and yet Smart People does it quite well, if you like that sort of thing. The thrust beneath it all is that the characters are in theory very smart but have no idea how to run their everyday lives and relationships. It warrants no in-depth analysis, suffice it to say that it’s light enough and witty enough to make for an amusing (and probably forgettable!) night out.
Dennis Quaid is suitably shaggy and grumpy as the Prof, playing the emotionally-disconnected academic who aspires to getting a seriously boring book published for all he’s worth. The film shines in representing the lifestyle of a university academic. The character is also a grieving widower who cannot bear to even part with his dead wife’s clothes and initially this is the only aspect of Lawrence for which we feel much empathy! It is of course highly predictable that for hime the road to reformation lies straight ahead.
Young Ellen Page is great again, but at risk of being typecast – here she virtually reprises another Juno-style character, but with the extra gravitas of being a sort of mother-substitute in the Wetherhold household and way too serious, clever and cynical for her years. Holmes is somewhat in the background as the little-noticed son, but Haden Church is wonderful as the ne’er-do-well brother who causes more than a few upsets, especially when Vanessa decides she has a crush on her reprobate uncle,and he decides to introduce her to the joys of dope and alcohol! I’ve always had an issue with Parker (iconically known for Sex in the City) – I just don’t like much about her screen persona and here she seems so unlike any doctor I’ve ever come across.
There are however plenty of amusing lines to raise a laugh, especially when Lawrence accuses his irresponsible brother of being “a giant toddler”, Janet accuses Lawrence of being “a pompous windbag”, and Lawrence confesses his book is endlessly rejected because of its “surly smarter-than-thou-arsehole tone”. Sure it’s not fall-off-your-seat humour, but close enough to the bone of real people’s lives and insecurities to hit home!
It’s a shame the script had to opt for such a neat and cheesy resolution, but as an addition to the dysfunctional family/romantic comedy category, Smart People is better company than many.
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