Smart People

The first time we see Professor Lawrence Wetherhold is when he is tramping along a college campus, on his way to teach his class of students whose names he cannot even remember. Clad with a nice brown jacket, a beard, and an oblivious look to everything around him, we know exactly how this story is going to go. "Smart People" is the story of a depressed middle aged man, a genre which I've always been rather fond of-if it's movies like "Lost in Translations," "Sideways," or "American Splendor," than I am there on opening night. Something about them always manage to get to me. This time the lead is Dennis Quaid, an actor who I am able to find agreement with when he isn't trying to be an action hero-when he does actual real life characters-very much like in "In Good Company," than he manages to find some kind of middle ground and actually does impress me to some degree. 

And yes-Lawrence is a depressed middle aged man, a few years after the death of his wife Caroline. He lives with his daughter Vanessa-a tightly wound Republican who is constantly worried about getting a perfect score on the SAT. His other son James lives is the college where Lawrence teaches English literature-where he lectures to his students, and implores them to wear nametags to get to know their names. However we learn early that this doesn't work, when a girl says "I've taken three classes with you this year and you still don't know my name." A funny little detail in the script is that she pops up at almost every function that he is a part of, including dating his own son. From what I can recall, we never actually learn her name. And another thing-Lawrence is an all around unpleasant, self-absorbed, and very stuck up professor, committed to trying to become the head of the English department. And Vanessa is on her way to becoming just like him. After his car gets towed and he injures his head trying to retrieve his briefcase from the impound lot, Lawrence learns he cannot legally drive for six months. This is where his adopted brother Chuck comes in-a rather sleazy and lazy but good natured man who always wants to get a buck off of his brother. Chuck ends up moving in and becoming Lawrence's driver. Then there is Janet, a doctor who took Lawrence's class as a freshman and carried a small schoolgirl crush on him. 

The pieces are quite in play for the script-which was written by Mark Poirier as his first feature film-and considering that he really does go a rather formula route he does manage to write some nice characters and a few good exchanges. The thing about "Smart People" is that from the very first scene we more or less know the routes that these characters will follow-and they all have their own place-the rigid and stern lead character who will change over time, the woman who will help him change his ways, a clone spawn, and lastly the colorful relative-in this case its Thomas Hayden Church who is channeling his own brilliant work in 'Sideways" here. But it is really all acted quite well-Quaid really looses himself in this role, and this is a huge step up from his phoned in work in "Vantage Point" from two months ago. Ellen Page-probably the reason why this ended up getting a rather small wide release instead of being released in seven theatres opening weekend-does do some "Juno" channeling here-just in that smart as a whip, fast talking, character. 

While "Smart People" does have its moments of rather hurried formula, it is quite satisfying. As much as Lawrence is a jerk, Quaid makes him tolerable and you continue to watch him to see what will happen next. The weak link here in terms of acting is clearly Sarah Jessica Parker as Janet-I read that Rachael Weisz was the original actress for the part here, and she would have clearly done a much better job. Parker just really has no presence at all, and her performance here is quite one note-and it did affect the love story portion of the film quite a bit, but luckily there was enough good to make up for it. I also was not a huge fan of some of the directions that the screenplay goes with the love story-and I would have preferred something a little less extreme in terms of how that plot ends-without giving anything away. 

"Smart People" also throws in some neat little satire here and there-the pompos nature of Lawrence and even Vanessa is more or less the basis of the title of the film, and even though they may be book smart there are so many answers that they can't study for or get from a textbook. And it really is fun to watch Quaid when he is amping up the stuck up side of him, especially during a disaster date scene between him and Janet. So I can recommend "Smart People" despite it being quite the conventional "depressed" picture, but in stories like this-which we have seen quite a number of times-there is still quite a bit of good going on to satisfy even when the screenplay doesn't thrill that much.

Final Grade-

"Smart People" *** of ****