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Think tank
(by Stacey Rynders - April 22, 2008)
Although it’s a movie about intelligent people, Smart People doesn’t expect much from its audience.
The plot overuses a stereotype that says people are either brainiacs or mooches with big hearts. This strategy makes the storyline tired and the character development predictable.
Smart People’s Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a tenured professor of Victorian literature who lost all passion for life after the death of his wife several years earlier. He is sleepwalking through life, without care or respect for those around him and is seemingly ignorant of his own teenage children’s lives.
With little effort, Lawrence attracts the ire of most of those around him, including his son. Among the few that don’t resent his state of oblivion are his academically obsessed daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page), who treads faithfully in her father’s shadow, and his lackluster brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church).
Two events that happen near the beginning of the movie upend Lawrence’s hazy life: Lawrence experiences a head injury that prevents him from driving, and Chuck comes looking for a place to stay. Killing two birds with one stone, Chuck moves in and becomes Lawrence’s driver, despite Lawrence’s protests. Then Lawrence strikes up a relationship with his emergency-room doctor, Janet Hardigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student who once had a crush on him.
Chuck’s influence on the family household, while disruptive and arguably unconventional, brings some genuine sensitivity back to the emotionally stunted lives of Lawrence and Vanessa. Chuck encourages Vanessa to seek her own identity, to stop striving to win her father’s affection and attention with academic success alone. Exiting the safe haven of academic certainty proves to be bumpy and confusing for Vanessa, as does her father’s sudden exit from solitary confinement when he begins dating Dr. Hartigan.
Perhaps the film’s most serious flaw is its introduction, composed of several brief scenes disjointedly spliced together and meant to paint the state of Lawrence. The editing here feels almost like that of a trailer, and if it weren’t for the obvious presence of Dennis Quaid, one might think that the film hasn’t yet started.
That said, Smart People does feature some decent acting. Sarah Jessica Parker’s role thankfully does not include her trademark scream-laugh. Instead, the role of Dr. Hartigan allows Parker to focus on a more nuanced role that her recent string of romantic comedies has lacked. It is nice to see her in a quirkier role, one more akin to those that carried her celebrity in the years before Sex And The City.
The same can be said for Dennis Quaid, whose career seems to be experiencing a resurgence. Here, Quaid has chosen yet another role that allows him to show his range and eschew the flashy, typecast romantic lead he attempted in some less-than-memorable films. His performance as Lawrence is well done and allows the audience to believe in the changes he undergoes.
Oddly, Thomas Haden Church’s portrayal of Chuck is the most complex and emotive. Despite the fact that Chuck gets his niece drunk and stoned, and is an interminable mooch and wanderer, Chuck is one of the movie’s most loveable and interesting characters.
To the film’s credit, its characters are allowed to evolve as the story develops. None of the characters experiences a too-easy “aha!” moment; instead, their transitions are subtle and creditable. And while the characters lives are depressing at the start of the film, each arrives at a better state of affairs by the end.
Nevertheless, Smart People is a mediocre film best saved for an afternoon on the couch.
Smart People is playing at the Chase Park Plaza Cinemas, located at 212 N. Kingshighway Blvd.
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