Smart People

Smart People (Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Hayden Church) – A dysfunctional family still torn by the premature death of the wife/mother.  The husband/father (Quaid) a disconnected, unmotivated tenured college professor who doesn’t care about even the names of his students.  A deadbeat brother/uncle (Church) who has the insight of a wise psychotherapist.  The daughter (Page, reprising her Juno role) who is a brilliant, smart-talking, witty wife substitute.  And a doctor (Parker) so dedicated to her profession that she has no personal life.  Last I checked, none of these was a new character, and the ensemble provides no new premise. Oh yes, they are all intelligent, “smart people.”  As a cast, the ensemble is the major appeal of this film that plays like a low-cost indie even if it’s been promoted like a mainstream commercial movie.  The film takes place in my hometown, Pittsburgh, where Quaid teaches literature at Carnegie Mellon University while Parker, as his former student, practices emergency medicine at Allegheny General Hospital.  Filmed entirely in the Steel City, the film makes no attempt to show the city at its best.  Rather, this is a character(s) study about how screwed up smart people can be.  In its attempt to provide some drama amidst the dysfunction, it conjures up the unlikely love story between professor and former student, the jealousy of the daughter for the girlfriend, and the unlikely crush the teenager has on the underachieving brother.  It doesn’t provide drama; it just fills time.  And when this flick opts for the happy, conventional ending, it lost me.  I had been trying hard to enjoy the interplay of the characters (especially the chemistry between Church and Page).  But I came to the conclusion that Sarah Jessica Parker still can’t act.  And while Dennis Quaid is a versatile actor, he just never seemed real to me at Lawrence Wetherhold, shut-down prof and would-be department head.  I was inclined to tell you not to waste your time seeing this movie but there may be a few among you anxious to see this ensemble try to pull off a bad story.