Possibly the most sobering and dry cinematic experience so far this year, Smart People is a small film with a big cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City), Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point), Ellen Page (Juno) and Thomas Hayden Church (Spiderman 3). With an undertone of wit with a dramatic plotline, the film offers highbrow observation of real issues.
Widower Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid) is a depressed English professor teaching at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the type of instructor that students hate: spitting out information with a snobbish tone while unfairly grading effortful papers. His son and daughter, James (Ashton Holmes, What We Do Is Secret) and Vanessa (Page), both take after their father in terms of intelligence and are fully aware of it.
After an accident, the professor is reunited with former student and current doctor Janet Hartigan (Parker). Cue the romantic subplot.
The film is simple in its direction and tone, showing the every day struggle of a group of people a bit too smart and socially awkward for their own good.
The screenplay, written by rookie Mark Poirier, is beautiful, if not a bit over-the-top in the dialogue department. Many viewers will be reminded of Little Miss Sunshine, minus some of the laugh-out loud humor.
Quaid takes full advantage of the words, putting on a spectacular performance.
And while Sunshine was more family-friendly in its message and level of intelligence, Smart People has no problem being a film not for the "uneducated." SAT-preparation-styled vocabulary runs rampant form start to finish, and some of the jokes are sure to fly over the head of even the keenest moviegoer.
Director Noam Murro incorporates stale camera angles and a dry soundtrack, adding to the parched nature of the movie and its characters.
In this case, the title does not lie. This is a well-made thinker's film, made by smart people, for smart people.
