Thanks for checking out our Smart People review. If you’d like there is a video version of the Smart People review at the bottom of this post.
First time director Noam Murro delivers this new comedy (Smart People) that has had my attention ever since I first saw the trailer for it. It has an absolutely fantastic cast and the feel of the film from the marketing seemed like a cross between Juno and Sideways (ironically enough the stars of both those films, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church are in this film), and since I loved both those films (Juno was the best film of 2007) I’ve found myself anxiously awaiting Smart People. Did it live up to my hopes. YES! It even exceeded them!
THE GENERAL IDEA
The synopsis for Smart People looks like this: “Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant — but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he’s as downright flummoxed as the next guy. His teenaged daughter (Ellen Page) is an acid-tongued overachiever who follows all too closely in dad’s misery-loving footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne’er-do-well brother (Thomas Haden Chuch) has perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can’t seem to find passion in anything anymore, not even the Victorian Literature in which he’s an expert, it seems Lawrence is sleepwalking through a very stunted middle age. When his brother shows up unexpectedly for an extended stay at just about the same time as he accidentally encounters his former student Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker), the circumstances cause him to stir from his deep, deep freeze, with often comical, sometimes heartbreaking, consequences for himself and everyone around him.”
THE GOOD
Where the hell do I start? A sure sign that I LOVED a movie is when I walk out of the movie theater and I instantly start thinking about, or talking about (if I’m with someone) my own life in terms of the themes explored in the film. When a film so resonates with me and draws me into a state of self-reflection, then it’s done something very rare and very right. You see, some people will (and have already) mistaken “Smart People” for some sort of romantic comedy, and on the surface you can understand why they would. But really, the movie is about a group of people, who each for their own reasons live in a crippling sense of pain that functionally paralyses them from getting on with, and truly living their lives. The profound truth of the film, is that the only thing keeping each of them captive to their pain, is their own fear of what may lay outside that pain. Live with it long enough, and even pain becomes comfortable. Sometimes it feels like it’s all we’ve ever known, and the prospect of taking any sort of risk that could lead to more failure or pain becomes inconceivable.
Dennis Quaid’s pain is the loss of his wife several years earlier that he’s never dealt with or even tried to move on from
Thomas Haden Church (Quaid’s brother) faces the pain of his stage of life with nothing really to show for it. A lifetime of failure.
Ellen Page’s (Quaid’s daughter) pain stems from the death of her mother that leaves her without a strong sense of her own identity. Early on she latched onto her father’s identity and becomes even more like him that he is but with her own set of struggles and confussion. Not knowing who she really is, never having really lived… and the idea of discovering life and who she is terrifies her.
Ashton Holmes (Quaid’s son) is in a world all his own without a sense of belonging. His perceived lack of approval from his father drives him to a place of just being bitter and angry.
The ironic thing about all these characters and the pain that unique defines each of them, is that the only thing holding them captive to their pain is themselves. Each of them refuses to give that pain up since that pain to one degree or another now defines who they are, and if you remove that hurt, they simply don’t know who it is that will be looking at them back in the mirror. None of this is ever explicitly dialoged about in the film, but it’s always there just an inch below the surface.
THE MOVIE IS FUNNY. Dealing with the issues that Smart People does can become bleak and wear you out if it’s not counter balanced. Humor is the counter balance in this film and it’s brilliant. The relationship between Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church consistently makes you grin and often laughing out loud. Why Thomas Haden Church is not a HUGE star by now is totally beyond me. I’m not quite sure what else this guy has to do.
The performances by all the family cast were wonderful. Dennis Quaid never ceases to amaze me by his diversity and what he’s able to pull off. The shear range of thoughts and emotions this guy is able to effectively communicate on screen without using a word is staggering. I’ve already mentioned Ellen Page (who proves her Oscar nomination was no fluke) and Thomas Haden Church.
THE BAD
The one weakness of this film is the Sara Jessica Parker character. The character is needed and does serve an important function in the story (being the love interest for Dennis Quaid and ultimately the one who starts to pull him out of his very hard shell), but I found her character and her relationship with Quaid to be forced and didn’t feel “natural” or had any flow to it. Not a major complaint, but it was a negative.
OVERALL
Sometimes you see a movie that you love that you think other people are crazy for not loving too. Smart People however is one of those films where I can totally understand why some critics and people may not like it. It’s not for everyone. It won’t resonate with everyone and certain things I saw as strengths in the film others may see as weaknesses and that’s totally fair. However, the film DID resonate with me, it captured me, it drew me in and it made me just fall in love with it. Smart People is now my favorite film of 2008 so far and will be one I see in the theaters multiple times. I loved this movie. Maybe you will to, maybe you won’t… but I think those people that Smart People does appeal to, will cherish this film. Overall I give Smart People a 9 out of 10.
If you’d like, you can see the video version of our Smart People review below:
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I thought it was okay. I didn’t really see any reason to love these characters. I normally love Ellen Page (who looks so fine in this movie), but she was too much of a bitch in some scenes. It was nothing Oscar worthy, and it isn’t funny. But I thought it was okay
I give Smart People a 7/10
I saw Smart people yesterday and found it quite bad: the movie’s ingredients have all been ‘borrowed’ from existing movies which did a much better job than this movie.
Everything seems quite caricatural, from the chemestry-absent relationship rising between Denis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker to the ‘rebel/genius’ daughter, or again the ‘rebel/lost/cool’ uncle.
I even found the soundrtack very uninspired and taking too much space, like the director is trying to make up for the poor story line, dialogues and character’s psychological dimension.
I must admit I left before the end, which I rarely do when I go to the cinema. I left after not seeing any improvement for about 1h10, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the end shows Denis Quaid bringing his defunt’s wife clothes to the charity shop, as a symbol of closure.
If you are in the mood to see that kind of movie, I’d recommand to rent out a movie such as Wonder boys, whose story line can be remotely compared but whose result is without contest so much better.
I’ve noticed that in her career, Ellen Page has become a great actress. X-men was not her movie, but I agree that Juno made her a star.
Ah! I very much do agree with MATT on why there was no explanation as to why Quaid would only sit on the driver’s side back seat of the car. I was hoping that there would be some kind of allusion, brief even, to a car accident of some sort involving Mister Wetherhold’s late wife, or some horrible childhood experience that would explain his unduly nauseous reaction to sitting on the passenger side. Maybe I should garner up some fortitude and ask the writers…
Great movie, though,NOT FOR EVERYONE. Some could get extremely bored with this movie. Its a great movie for people who appreciate analysing the subtleties and complexities of life.
The film, to me, depicts the not-so-perfect realm of the “college educated, well-to-do family” yet the brilliant dialogue and quite candid nature of the film is all too amusing.
Aha! The guys at filmspotting nailed it! Go watch “Wonderboys” instead. A film with similar themes and tones, but much more challenging and actually lives closer to the edge and takes some interesting chances; while Smart People is sort of cliche ridden and generic.
Ugh. Once again we disagree. Yes, some of the humor is funny, but I didn’t find much of it to be hysterical. It was chuckle worthy and that’s about it (ooh! It’s Haden Church’s butt for absolutely NO reason other than to show his but. Yeah, hilarious).
The film is completely bland and never bothers to take any chances. The 90 minutes felt like 120. It was the most neautral film I can think of on the year; nothing challenging about it whatsoever.
The side characters were completely devoid of life – the brother had no point in the film at all. It’s like they wanted him in there, but weren’t quite sure what to do with him and addressed him once or twice. Either have him be part of the story or not. It can’t be both ways.
And the music… oh that droning, generic folk rock that has no feeling whatsoever playing throughout. 9 out of 10?
No; 6/10 AT BEST, but closer to a 4.
Mr. Campea, thank you for you passionate and intelligent post about Smart People, as well as former well-informed posts. I feel it necessary to state that I saw Smart People on opening night. Like you I fond of Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page very much, and think that Sarah Jessica Parker and Dennis Quaid have done excellent work many times over. Also like you I was very excited to see the film since the first time that I saw the trailer (though I do not share your love of Juno). In your review you write that “The one weakness of this film is the Sara Jessica Parker character,” and you go on to explain that the relationship between her character (Janet Hartigan) and Dennis Quaid’s (Lawrence Wetherhold) is forced and unnatural. However you also laud the character and performance of Quaid, as well as Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church and Ashton Holmes. While watching the film, at many points, I felt that the characters were all a bit too one-dimensional, so much so that I found them all a bit forced and unnatural, and thought them difficult (sometimes impossible) to connect with. Your first paragraph under the heading “The Good” seems to go into detail that the themes explored in the film resonated with you so much that the film caused you to enter a state of self-reflection. This brings me to a question: you thought that the characters were all (with the possible exception of Sarah Jessica Parker’s) well-developed and also you connected with the themes of the film, I thought that the characters were one-dimensional, is it possible to connect with a film’s themes and not its characters? What relationship does a films characters and themes have, does appreciating one beget appreciating the other? After seeing the film and reading some reviews, it seems that Smart People destined to be one of those films that people will either love or hate. I am very curious to know any responses you have to this and hope that I will hear from you.
Anyone else see the similarities of Ellen Page’s character from Juno and this???
The two characters both have witty comebacks to other people. Having the general output towards others in both movies? Anyone agree?
Funny, the reviewer I heard condemned this movie but praised Street Kings. I have to stop watching the stuff the show in taxi’s…
Hey john,
this movie only has a 48% on RottenTomatoes. Are you surprised by this?
Hey JC,
Duh! You’re totally right. I meant to say “Myriad” not “Madrid”. Sometimes my brain just doesn’t function.
So Ellen Page is Juno? Does Thomas Haden Curch play Sandman in this? Darn these actors and their talents. I shant see this movie because I’m to cool for school.
I walked into “Smart People” with my wife very reluctantly. I was expecting a very boring film with little humor. I enjoyed the film immensely and thought all your comments John were spot on. I don’t feel like the relationship between Quaid and Parker was forced at all except for what the director wanted you to see.
I do want to say one thing that kinda drove my interests through the movie that left me mad at the end because it was never resolved was why Quaid would only sit on the driver’s side back seat of the car. I was hoping that would get explained (I wasn’t buying all the “I get nauseous” crap)
Madrid is the capitol of Spain, not what you apparently think it means.
@Jesse
Thanks for saying that about the Juno parallel, Now I can avoid this. I would really be a much happier human being if I never heard anything else about Juno ever again. Words cannot express my exhaustion toward that film.
I have to disagree with John on this one. It’s a fairly decent film, and definitely way better than “Street Kings”, but 9 out of 10? No way.
The first half is good, but the second half felt really muddled and underdeveloped to me. One main subplot involving Ellen Page and THC is never really given the attention it deserves. A lot of interesting things are introduced but never fleshed out to their full potential. However, it does have a lot of funny lines, and the acting is great, particularly THC.
It’s worth renting, but not the kind of thing I’d plop down $10 to see on the big screen, or would go back and watch again. 5.5/10.
It’s good to know this movie is worth checking out. I saw one trailer on TV for the movie and had NO idea what this movie was about. None. I’ll check it out on DVD.
On the other hand, I’m watching 2 Days in Paris tonight, woo! :D
I saw this at sundance. Im curious to see what the changes are. One thing that bugs me is that Ellen Page in the movie is a republican, and the title is smart people…Also, i see a lot of parallel characteristics of Ellen Page’s character in Juno and this. She displays the same mood in some ways in both movies. Other than that it was quite a good movie and im still confused why it is around 48 percent on rottentomatoes….
Is Ellen playing Juno again? I need to know before I lay down money for this.