"Smart People" movie review

This week we take a look at the dramedy Smart People. Dennis Quaid is a pompous college professor who gets into a relationship with a doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). Ellen Page and Thomas Hayden Church costar. First time director Noam Murro directs.

Andy: Smart People is ultimately a film about how dumb smart people can be. The successful literature professor and his straight as an arrow daughter watch their lives start to crumble as the deadbeat adopted brother (Church) seems to be the most well adjusted member of the family. This movie seems like it’s tailor made for indie movie audiences, and because of that it feels contrived and formulaic in a way indie audiences usually don’t like very much.

Ryan: With a title like Smart People this movie could have been one of those films that's too smart for its own good. Thankfully it's not that, but it's also far from a brilliant movie. All in all it's mostly an OK film. It has some tender moments, some laugh-out-loud moments and some witty moments. It's an indie film that's not going to garner much indie credit. But like last week's Leatherheads, Smart People is a welcome break from the low-quality flicks that have been invading local cinemas.

Andy: Smart People stars Dennis Quaid, and that puts a movie in a hole from the beginning. Generally speaking, having Dennis Quaid be star of your movie is not a good idea. He’s only sometimes awful (Cold Creek Manor), but he’s rarely really good (In Good Company). Building a movie around him seems like a risky proposition, and the risk doesn’t exactly pay off. He’s okay, there are even a few really good scenes, but you need a performance that’s better than okay to carry a movie.

Ryan: At first I thought Dennis Quaid was miscast as a surly elitist professor. Slowly, his performance won me over. This is not an award-worthy performance but it is a noteworthy performance that helps to erase his uninspired performance in Vantage Point (from earlier this year). While Quaid's performance anchors the film, it's Thomas Haden Church who steals the picture. If one thought Sideways was a fluke, it wasn't. Church's on-top-of-his-game performance is what elevates Smart People from a mediocre film to a decent film.

Andy: there is no question that Church is the highlight here. And I Don’t think it’s an overstatement to claim that he saved the movie. The plot never quite takes hold the way you want it to, Ellen Page is amusing as the snarky, right-wing high school student, and Sarah Jessica Parker is simply doing her thing. None of this is particularly bad, and it is even entertaining, but it is Thomas Hayden Church that takes things to a different level. He is aloof, endearing, compassionate, and obnoxious, sometimes all in the same scene. Without Church, Smart People would be very questionable.

Ryan: While Smart People is a pleasant diversion from the normal spring duds, it's also a movie that should have been better than it ended up being. Part of the problem with the movie is its cinematic appearance. Take out some of the big words used in the script along with some of the sub-plots and one has a pretty mainstream atypical Hollywood dramedy. Smart People is basically a Cliff Notes version of Sideways or Wonder Boys. Unfortunately it fails to capture the charm and depth of those two pictures.

Smart People doesn’t cash in on its potential, but it is also a pretty entertaining diversion. Final grade: B-.