Smart People

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Holmes
Directed by: Noam Murro
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A self-centered literature professor (Dennis Quaid) goes through the motions at work and struggles in relating to his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church), his daughter (Ellen Page), and son (Ashton Holmes). Things start to change when he takes a chance on starting a relationship with a pretty doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker) who was a former student.

Review:

Tim: Smart People is a fairly decent dramedy about a dysfunctional family of intelligent people who fail to really connect on an emotional level. It features a very good cast, most of whom give good performances. The movie and story itself are nothing new, and this movie occasionally suffers from the feeling that we've been here and done this before.

Because the story isn't the greatest or the most original, the cast becomes the biggest draw here. Dennis Quaid is in the starring role, and he does a very good job. I've always had an unexplained appreciation for Quaid, and I couldn't help but like him here. He plays an unlikeable, self-absorbed, frustrating character- but he plays him so well. I enjoyed him in this movie. I also really liked Thomas Haden Church. Church has a knack for playing very different but enjoyable characters, and this is another one to add to his list. He had a few terrific moments in this film. I also liked Ellen Page's casting here. She is so believable as an intellectually-superior teenager and she fit in well with the rest of the cast. I did not, however, feel too excited about Sarah Jessica Parker. I've never been a fan of Parker, and although she's not bad here- she did not win me over, either. I wish another actress would have been cast here. All in all, though, the cast is fairly good.

I wish I liked the story better. It is interesting, but didn't do enough different or better than many other, similar movies. I like the story of a man lost, trying to find himself, unaware of the damage he is doing to those around him. The story could have been more effective, however. I also liked the comedic side to the film- while there are some very funny moments, this movie needed to be a bit funnier.

Smart People is a well titled film, because this movie does have more intelligence than most movies. However, as this movie preaches- intelligence is not always enough. Sadly, it is not enough here. While this movie does some things right, it didn't do enough of them. I didn't dislike this movie, but it wasn't good enough.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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