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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