Smart People (2008)

Dennis Quaid Plays a Barely Functional College Professor that is On the Brink of Rejection from His Students, Colleagues, Publisher, Son, and People in General. Ellen Page is His Cute "Monster" Daughter, He Her Role Model. She is as Smart as They Come but of Course Has Issues (like hating to sit alone at lunch). Thomas Hayden Church is the Antithesis Adopted Brother to the Family and Shows Signs of Being the Really Smart One Despite Being a Homeless Middle-Aged Slacker ("I love my life.") Sarah Jessica Parker is a Medical Doctor that is an Interloper at Christmas Dinner and is Told..."Come in we need some anti-venom in the snake pit.". Ashton Homes is the Poet Brother that is at Odds with His Sister, Dad, and Loves His Uncle.This is the Cast and the Setting for This Low-Key, Heady, Wordy, Peek-In at a Family of Book Smart People. It is Off-Beat, Interesting, and is Not for Everyone. But Those Seeking Something to Counter Most of What Comes Out of Hollywood Routinely, This is a Thoughtful, Sometimes Comfortable Curl-Up and Voyeuristic Viewing that is Rewarding and Satisfying to its Small Target Audience.The Strength of the Film is the Dialog Exchanges Where Most of the Humor Resides. The Drama is Less Engaging but Necessary for Full Disclosure. There May Be a Happy Ending, and Maybe Not. That is Never Clear and Makes for a Watch Til the End Credits to Have That Bit of Intrigue Answered.

Smart People (2008): Dir: Noam Murro / Cast: Dennis Quaid, Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Holmes: Comic drama about choices. It stars Dennis Quaid as a professor who is widowed and has two children. When his car is impounded he is left to trust his unreliable adopted brother who just arrived in town due to financial difficulties. Director Noam Murro does a fantastic job at detailing these relationships. Quaid is seen as withdrawn and remembering none of his students. Finally he finds romance and opportunity with a nurse as well as a new beginning. Thomas Haden Church plays his adopted brother who lacks ambition yet establishes a relationship with his niece that opens a new view on life. Sarah Jessica Parker plays a nurse whom was a former student of Quaid's. She is not there as a romantic prop but rather she opens his eyes to his flaws. Ellen Page plays his daughter deep in her studies yet her annoyance at Hayden Church branches into an evening of substance abuse placing him in a position of responsibility. Ashton Holmes plays Quaid's son who ends up bonding of sorts with Church when he Church needs a place to crash. Great cast and a screenplay that is well written and realistic in a way that is more natural than predictable. The film demonstrates our imperfections with the hopes of new beginnings. Score: 10 / 10

This should have been a great movie. With stars such as Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church, I was expecting work of the same high quality as Juno and Sideways. Unfortunately, their talents are wasted in this shallow attempt to portray loneliness and self-absorption. There is virtually no character development; each character's shortcomings are sledge hammered at the audience, but, just as we see them not able to care about each other, there is no reason for the audience to care about them either. We have the lazy stereotypes of the curmudgeon, the conservative offspring (think Alex in Family Ties) and the visiting misfit sibling, but they are all cardboard cutouts with absolutely no way for us to empathize with them because we don't really know them. None of the characters is tragic enough or funny enough to merit our concern. It's rare for a movie to fall so short at making these essential connections with the audience. This is a shame, because there are four smart actors involved here and the idea itself has merit, but the director and writer aren't smart enough to know what to do with them; in essence, to know how to make a movie.

People are complicated. Sometimes there's people who are funny, people who are boring, people who are popular and people who don't. And there's smart people and there's dumb people (whatever that means). And then there's a movie called "Smart People", a movie about complicated persons trying to make things easy (or not). A simple conversation can be too difficult even to a Literature teacher (played by Dennis Quaid) whose arrogance, egocentricity and lack of attention make him forget the name of his students, ignore the fact that his son (Ashton Holmes) buys expensive books and that his daughter (Ellen Page) is trying to enter into a college. And worst: he's a widower man that after an accident falls in love for her medical doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). And even more worst: while recovering from this accident his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) starts to live in his house. If you are only reading the names of the actors here you might want to see this film right now but I tell you: If you think you're going to like it or it's a good movie think again. To call "Smart People" of a boring movie is to diminish its potential. I say that this movie hasn't anything new to show besides of being a compilation of several different movies together that didn't make a good one. All the characters are egoistic, intelligent but with no regards about other people's interest. To them everything is motive of laugh. Too much sarcasm and too much black humor didn't worked at all. Ellen Page is becoming type-casted as sarcastic characters who delivers awkward punchlines after other just like in "Juno" (excellent film by the way). It was annoying. Dennis Quaid's character was too overacted in his manners and in his intelligence. After all it's all boring persons making other people's life more boring but I'll say more. In life, intelligent (or smart if you prefer) are always put aside from other people. Many times they don't have enough skills to talk, skills to be popular, skills to say simple things rightly, and they're too shy to say something or when they say it sounds incomprehensible to some people. Okay, we've seen "The Revenge of the Nerds" and we know that's exactly how it works. But "Smart People" reduced its public by stating that smart people are ignorant and they must be ignored and they don't know how to have a good time, always putting themselves behind books and something similar, not to mention use sarcasm as a weapon. Wrong. There are cases and there are cases. What about people who has Asperger's Syndrome? What about people with social phobia? What about shy people? All these examples are ruthless, cold hearted and sarcastic? It was a too critical movie with no funny moments at all (perhaps one or two scenes). It also has a speech about change what you are. The uncle in the film always try to involve his niece into something new like smoke pot or go to a bar, because he thinks she's always studying to go to college and doesn't have too much time for fun. Or Dennis's character being repelled by Sarah Jessica in their first date because he only talks about himself and his career. Wait a minute. If you love someone you want to change this person? Can't you respect that person for what she or he is? Once again it judged some people too much and you might get depressed or annoyed with that. Screenplay: Bad. It didn't create any interesting situation whatsoever. Acting: Nothing spectacular or inspiring to see. Direction: Misguided and lost at some times. Movie: 4 stars because I've seen worst movies and this is just pointless and has some level of knowledge.