Maybe not all that smart
No
matter how well they might disguise it, Smart People
is really an intellectual soapie. Maybe it should run on Channel
2 late on a Sunday night. This modest comedy with a sprinkling
of black humour never really gets airborne. The film deals with
yet another American dysfunctional family headed by yet another
college professor Dad of the pompous, self-absorbed, pain-the-backside
type, aided and abetted by an equally self-absorbed monstrous
daughter more intelligent than Einstein. Throw into the mix an
adopted layabout pot-smoking brother who wouldn’t work in
an iron lung, and a mild-mannered female doctor as the unfortunate
love interest.
Bumptious Prof. Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid)
is brilliant but rather disliked for his indifferent manner at
the college. His obnoxious teenage daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page),
a mirror image of father, is an acid tongued overachiever. They’re
a miserable pair. Then there’s the young son James (Ashton
Holmes) mostly estranged from his father; while on the scene arrives
(as we are constantly reminded) Lawrence’s adopted brother
Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), a perennial freeloader and generally
useless.
Middle aged widower Lawrence seems to have lost
passion for life including his pet subject, Victorian literature.
At this point, after an accident he is treated by a former student
now doctor Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker). He’s great at never
remembering his old students, and even seemingly unable to remember
his current ones. Nevertheless romance appears to bloom for Lawrence
with the quietly attractive Janet. However, his daughter has other
ideas, and things get stirred up in the Wetherhold family as the
coldly aloof Professor tries to master love and romance while
placating the jealous Vanessa.
Smart
People is the directorial debut for Noam Murro, apparently
after making some award-winning commercials. Unfortunately, he
works here without much style, even the photography lacks sharpness
and punch. The script by novelist Mark Poirier verges on the pretentious
despite some clever dialogue, travelling over well-trodden ground
which has seen better feet. One might cite Little Miss Sunshine,
or the upcoming The Savages for other disgruntled but
infinitely more entertaining teachers and their families.
Of course all eyes will focus on young Ellen Page
after her noteworthy sparkling performance in Juno. Here though
she’s not well served by the script as generally character
development is limited, so she ends up being a sulky precocious
brat. There is no doubt however Page is a talent worth watching.
Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point) does what he can to give
depth to his character, yet it’s left to Sarah Jessica Parker
(Sex and the City) in surprisingly mellow mode to bring
some much needed warmth to the film. Both Thomas Haden Church
(Spider-Man 3) and Aston Holmes are adequate in their
supporting parts.
My problem is that none of the Wetherhold family
are even likable, so it’s extremely hard to sympathize with
them and it’s easy to lose interest in the story. A couple
of minor niggles – the musical score by Nuno Bettencourt
seems intrusive and in the end annoying; and surely the word Faerie
as in “Faerie Queene” is incorrectly spelt on the
blackboard in one scene. That’s not very smart. There are
some effective moments but not enough to make this into a sparkling
comedy, though there’s smattering of dark laughs. Given
my underlying feeling this is more TV soap than cinema, hopefully
perhaps it may appeal to some very clever people.
John Bale
