It seems like nowadays, one of the most popular trends in films today is to tell stories of unlikable losers who find love and meaning while struggling through their everyday life. Recent films like The Savages and The Squid and the Whale seem to either hit or miss with this trend. With the release of Smart People, there is another film that goes for this and thankfully for the most part, it works.
Dennis Quaid, from Vantage Point and In Good Company plays the self-absorbed, widower professor Lawrence Wetherhold who after suffering a seizure, is not able to drive for six months. His accident brings around unexpected surprises with a new love interest in the form of his doctor and former student, Janet Hartigan, played by Sarah Jessica Parker of TV’s Sex and the City andThe Family Stone, and his adopted-brother, chauffeur Chuck, played to perfection by Sideways and Spiderman 3’s Thomas Haden Church. Smart People deals with these new constant people in his life interacting with him and his family, which also includes his genius, mental equal daughter, Vanessa, as done by Ellen Page of Hard Candy and last year’s indie hit Juno, and his distant student son James, acted by A History of Violence’s Ashton Holmes. In this dysfunctional yet intelligent family, they start to realize that maybe just being smart will not cut it.
Quaid and Page work well off of each other as the smarter-then-thou father-daugher duo. Quaid is almost like a pseudo-Jack Nicholson or Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale type that just plays along the lines of being despicable and lovable. Page once again shows that at such a young age, she is able to reach an acting level that most adults are never able to achieve. Parker is very likable as the woman trying to soften Lawrence up and Parker has an incredible softness that usually does not show in most of her performances. However, the real star is Church, who ties the film together and steals every scene. His relationships between Quaid and especially with Page, make for some of the sweetest moments in the film as he tries to bring heart into the Wetherhold’s broken home. His character is very reminiscent of his Jack character in Sideways, except much more amiable and without the sleeze ball attitude. These deep character interactions and relationships are what make Smart People work.
First time director Noam Murro and first time screenwriter Mark Poirier make the characters in Smart People, well, smart. Yet some of their decisions are a bit questionable. The film sometimes goes too far to prove that Lawrence is still a broken man from losing his wife and goes to metaphoric lengths to prove this that do not necessarily work. Besides this though, Murro and Poirier make a film that feels like a combination of Wonder Boys and As Good As It Gets made by Alexander Payne.
Murro brings together an insanely talented cast that relishes in these characters and brings out all the best parts of the actors. The film sometimes struggles and seems to almost pull out its ending as an almost afterthought, but Smart People has enough wit and fun to make it an enjoyable, albeit flawed film.
Rating: B-
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