“Smart People” pulls a muscle trying to capture that “Little Miss Sunshine” vibe. You know the drill – dysfunctional family feuds leavened by snarky humor. In essence, the mood most indies try to achieve.
But while “Sunshine” warmed our cockles with its family crack-ups, “Smart People” leaves us intermittently cold. The film hits DVD stores today (Aug. 12).
Dennis Quaid, wearing what seems to be a faux paunch, plays a widowed professor named Lawrence whose personal life is crumbling all around him. His smarty-pants daughter (Ellen Page) won’t let him date. His ne’er do well brother (Thomas Haden Church, the life of the movie) can’t be counted on for anything except reminding Lawrence what a grouch he is.
And his attempts to woo a local doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker) appear doomed from the start.
Quaid’s performance borders on overkill, what will his perpetually stooped shoulders and a posture that throws his belly out for the world to inspect. But he’s too good an actor to get tripped up by his such actorly miscues.
Church’s scenes hint at the movie “Smart People” might have been had more attention been paid to the relationships on display. The audience is left with too many unanswered questions. Just why does Parker’s character fall for this wreck of a professor? Why do the Page and Church characters grow apart?
“Smart People” bears all the trappings of a modestly budgeted film … the too-precious soundtrack, the casting of name players alongside indie darlings. But it takes more than the sum of such ingredients to conjure that “Sunshine” feeling.
(Photo: Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church form an unlikely bond in “Smart People.”)
Related posts:
on 
on 
on 
on 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Saw this movie on PPV last night. What a waste of $4 . If not for Thomas Hayden Church’s subtle and engaging performance, the movie would have been completely irredeemable.
The script was trying way to hard to be clever, and fell flat. Ellen Page was channeling Alex P. Keaton from “Family Ties,” minus any of the ironic appeal. Man, she was bad in this film — but the script is mostly to blame.
Did the director yell “cut” every time they didn’t enunciate their words obnoxiously and demand they do it again? Egad! That was hard to watch. And could Quaid — and actor I like — have tried to interpret his character without falling into the cliche of the rumpled professor, shuffling along with stooped shoulders, bad shoes, and wrinkled shirt?
What a crap movie.