Smart People

By Matthew Rodgers

Former TV commercial director Noam Murro’s debut feature includes some very impressive people in its Oscar baiting ensemble, it’s just a shame that the final film isn’t as smart as it thinks it is.

Happy Families do not exist in the movieverse, heck even The Brady Bunch had their dysfunctional days, so it’s no surprise that the Wetherhold family are a psychiatrist’s dream, and whilst the following list of characters are impeccably brought to life by the actors they never maintain much interest beyond a well-delivered line or final reel revelation.

Dr. Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid – Vantage Point) is a widowed professor that takes his limited life joy from tormenting students and alienating his family, daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page – Juno) and in particular son Jim (Ashton Holmes). Their schooled but unfulfilling lives take a turn for the “feel-good” when Lawrence suffers a seizure that leaves him laid-off for six months and at the behest of ER doctor, and in one of the many plot contrivances former pupil-with-a-crush, Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker – Sex and the City), and you can add to the convoluted mix his schlub of an adopted brother-in-law Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church – Spider-Man 3).

Mark Poirier’s smart-mouthed script carries a slight and familiar feel that adds to the overall feel of “seen-it-all-before” that hinders Smart People. Murro’s direction doesn’t help either; it really is the dictionary definition of an independent movie, slightly pretentious characters set against a dull palette of drained colours.

The success rests on the shoulders of the credible cast and even then it really is a mixed bag; Hayden Church reprises his role of affable loser that made his name in Sideways but that’s hardly a stretch, Page is a more intellectual Juno so the same criticism can be leveled at her. The reasons for watching are an against type Quaid whose personal journey is slightly unbelievable but ultimately moving in a film full of infuriating people, and Sarah Jessica Parker strikes a chord as the only character given a moral compass amongst such an alienating bunch of clever-clogs.

Comparisons to Juno are not simply because of Page, Smart People falls into that mini-genre of dramedies that has recently featured standard setters such as Diablo Cody’s Oscar winner, the similar and superior Wonderboys, and The Waitress and ultimately suffers because of that.