Dennis Quaid plays an English professor so pompous and self-contained that the unpleasant odor of mothballs must emanate off that tweed jacket he wears. Stuck. Stuck in a past when his wife died and he became a widower. Stuck in a career where he allows no growth for himself. Smart people.
His daughter, a pompous and bombastic smart person, is a brainiac headed to Stanford. Her uncle pretty much defines her as a robotic android. The uncle and adopted brother comes into the story early on. A n'e'r-do-well who enjoys muddling through life, he, too, is one of the "smart people." He uses his intelligence to become the an unintentional nudge for change for the daughter.
Then there's the son, now a student at the same college where his dad doggedly teaches. Dr. Wetherhold most likely uses the same notes prepared the first time he delivered the lecture. Words just billow from him like smoke and not living things to be savored with others--his students. He holds their essays in as much disdain. During the course of the story he positions himself to be named the head of the English department.
The pivotal point of the story is the doctor who treats Lawrence in the emergency room and grounds him from driving for six months (actually in retaliation for a C he assigned one of her essays written ten years earlier when she was his student and originally an English major.)
They go out to eat. After he delivers a 45-minute soliloquy about Victorian literature, she interrupts to tell him what a stuffed windbag he is and leaves.
All these people live in a grim reality of unrequited happiness, acceptance of the status quo, and inertia to change anything. Little by little, life intercedes. There's a miracle that changes everything.
"Smart People" is about smart people, but not as a positive attribute. To take pride in being smart and not extending beyond oneself is the height of selfishness. Some thinkers would say this is good, but the characters in this story don't even know they are lost in a maze of the thick muck of conceit and the supercilious. However, when two smart people collide and a tiny spark flickers, anything can happen.
Smart People is a great dramedy--a mixture of comedy and drama. It goes for the Smart Laugh, not the Big Laugh. Mark Poirier, the son of a MIT professor, wrote a Smart script, and Smart Director Noam Murro very smartly cast some of the smartest actors around: Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Dennis Quaid. I loved it, because I am also very Smart, but it didn't do as well at the box office or with the critics (except it was the Number One DVD at Netflix for a while) as it deserved. That Smarts.
I think the problem with this movie is that like the characters, Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) and his daughter Vanessa Wetherhold (Ellen Page), it doesn't suffer fools gladly. Thus, for a large portion of the audience, it is over their heads, and they feel like it is condescending, supercilious, and they feel patronized. As Lawrence's adopted brother, Chuck Wetherhold (Thomas Haden Church) says of Vanessa: "You're a monster!"
And that is an understatement. In another scene she says to her father, "Theresa Sternbridge practically runs a soup kitchen and she's always seen posing in photos with crack babies and dying, old, crusty ladies. And do you know why? She scored in the 45th percentile on her SAT. People like you and me don't need to compensate."
Although Chuck sees that Vanessa, and her role model father, are both monsters, in spite or because of their intelligence, he still loves them and tries to help. Did I mention that Chuck is a screw up, down on his luck, and an opportunist who sees a win/win situation for himself when his brother has a seizure and cannot drive. He will have a place to stay, and 3 squares, for driving his brother around--albeit very unreliably.
Though he is not the greatest driver, he really has a lot of intelligence about people. For instance, at a Christmas Dinner, where Vanessa's brother James Wetherhold (Ashton Holmes) complains about the rubbery ham (Vanessa used a recipe downloaded from the Internet written in the archaic French of Louis the XIV, and translated by her, maybe not as well as she thinks (a great example of her over achiever approach to cooking); when former student and now doctor Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) drops in unexpectedly Chuck explains "These children haven't been properly parented in many years. They're practically feral. That's why I was brought in. To keep them from killing each other."
All of the characters have a story arc, where they have an epiphany, and reach a greater awareness; but the Father/Daughter dynamic between the professor and his precocious progeny is perhaps the most complicated. He takes her for granted and is even less involved with his son James, while she idolizes him and emulates his self absorbed and condescending approach to other, less worthy, people.
---------------------
Lawrence Wetherhold: I don't think you're very happy Vanessa.
Vanessa Wetherhold: Well, you're not happy. And you're my role model.
=============================
She tries to sabotage his relationship with Janet, but he is more than capable of sabotaging it all by himself. However, with a little help and coaching from brother Chuck, perhaps he will prevail after all.
By the way, fabulous performance by Thomas Haden Church, comparable to his character and performance in Sideways. Chuck was one of my favorite characters.
That Ellen Page really nailed her role goes without saying. Her only danger now is being forever typecast as the wise-beyond-her-years waif. What other young actress could convincingly play someone stressed out about getting a perfect SAT score?
Sarah Jessica Parker was smart and sassy, yet she was also a bit damaged, and had a lesson to learn. Great scene when Janet first meets Chuck.
Dennis Quaid wore a fat suit and had a shuffling walk, like he had something stuffed up inside him. He looked very different than previous roles, and created a quite convincing persona. He really conveyed his utter disregard for those below him on the bell curve of intelligence. He was very annoying, as his role called for that, but gradually, perhaps, he would come around. One sub plot was about him getting a book published, and as you could imagine by the dry academic title, there was little chance of that happening. But when he submitted it under a title suggested by his daughter Vanessa, YOU CAN'T READ!, it finally was accepted.
---------------
Bloomberg: I got to the third section where I noticed a certain marketable tone, the surly smarter-than-thou @$$#0[3 tone.
===================================
Their strategy was that it would be attacked on NPR and three weeks later he'd be interviewed defending it on Charlie Rose. Kind of like when you have a lemon, make lemonade.
Last but not least, Ashton Holmes as James Wetherhold and Camille Mana as Missy Chin, one of Lawrence's students, were both good in their small but pivotal roles. James had good reason to stay away from the toxic environment he called home as much as possible, but when he was there, he made a quiet impact.
This was the first big screen role for Camille Mana, but I recognized her from the UPN sitcom One on One where she played Lisa Sanchez. She is very smart, having graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics after only 6 semesters, and I predict great things for her.
In Smart People she keeps popping up as the thorn in her professor's side, and if he wasn't so self absorbed, perhaps he would remember her name. She and James even hook up, and you almost wish the focus had been on them a bit more. However, they function as a reminder that other people have lives just as interesting if not more so than the self absorbed professor and his equally self absorbed daughter. When James gets a poem published in The New Yorker, Lawrence is surprised to learn that he writes poetry. Perhaps he should listen to what other people have to say once in a while.
I really liked this film because I could relate to the Smart People, and how hard it is for them to be humble. Yes, I too have a reputation for not suffering fools gladly, but after years of isolation, I would suffer them more than gladly. Though I may have an extremely high IQ, there are many different kinds of intelligence, and I wish that I had a little more intelligence about people. Perhaps I can get a high score on an intelligence test, but sometimes I can be a complete idiot.
OTHER NOTABLE ROLES OF SMART PEOPLE CAST MEMBERS
Sex and the City The Movie (Special Edition) (2008) .... Sarah Jessica Parker was Carrie Bradshaw
Juno (Single-Disc Edition) (2007) .... Ellen Page was Juno MacGuff
Spider-Man 3 (2007) .... Thomas Haden Church was Sandman / Flint Marko
An American Crime (2007) .... Ellen Page was Sylvia Likens
What We Do Is Secret (2007) .... Ashton Holmes was Rob Henley
Normal Adolescent Behavior: Havoc 2 (2007) .... Ashton Holmes was Sean
Hard Candy (2005) .... Ellen Page was Hayley Stark
A History of Violence (2005) .... Ashton Holmes was Jack Stall
Sideways (Widescreen Edition) (2004) .... Thomas Haden Church was Jack
Spanglish (2004) .... Thomas Haden Church was Mike the Realtor
Far From Heaven (2002) .... Dennis Quaid was Frank Whitaker
Postcards from the Edge (1990) .... Dennis Quaid was Jack Faulkner
Great Balls of Fire! (1989) .... Dennis Quaid was Jerry Lee Lewis
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) .... Sarah Jessica Parker was Janey Glenn
Footloose (1984) .... Sarah Jessica Parker was Rusty
----------------------
Vanessa Wetherhold: You should really make your bed. It sets the tone for the day.
Chuck Wetherhold: But, how do you know what tone I was trying to set?
=========================================
Buy Smart People (2008) Now
I have to get something off my chest: `Smart People' is an acquired taste. If you like indie films that contain absorbing characters and dysfunctional families, then you're going to get into this one. For me I've gone into a lot of intelligent films in the last year and often found something missing. Not entirely different than `Margot at the Wedding,' 'Two Days in Paris,' and `Year of the Dog,' the film's deliberations have enough flair to capture my interest. While the other films were clever, I have to admit, I personally didn't love them. Don't expect `Smart People' to be the next `Little Miss Sunshine' or `The Squid and the Whale (Special Edition)' but its quirkiness can reel one in from the onset.
Dennis Quaid stars as pedantic curmudgeon Dr. Lawrence Wetherhold, a straightforward professor at Carnegie Mellon who has difficulty remembering students' names, but has no trouble mincing words about their papers. On campus his son, Jim (Ashton Holmes) shows that even in close proximity to his father, the emotional distance between them is staggering. In an odd role reversal dad only visit's the dorm when he wants something from him.
At home daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page) is a type-A personality student; she's gung ho to get A's and is preparing for her ACT exams with a vengeance. A Republican zealot, her character is as sassy as Juno with none of the exuberant lilt. Uptight like her father, she also seldom minces words, but her delivery is deadly blunt and seldom funny. Plenty of opportunities for undercutting humor are given voice through her character.
That leaves us with the plot. When Wetherhold leaves his car illegally parked on campus, it gets towed. When he retrieves it from impounding, he discovers he's not going to get preferential treatment, so he climbs a fence with barbed wire to get his car and briefcase for free. Without succeeding he collapses on the pavement and is sent to Allegheny General. At the hospital, he is treated by Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student, who informs him he's had a seizure and his headstrong appeal to leave and drive will not take effect when her required report to the DMV restricts him from driving for six months. Vanessa, who is in the thick of exams, doesn't like losing beauty sleep visiting her father in the hospital.
But Larry's long lost adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Hayden-Church), an infrequent visitor with a history of borrowing money, now offers to be his paid chauffeur. He's a lousy driver to begin with, but Wetherhold doesn't have many choices. Larry especially needs him to shuttle him to see Janet, with whom he's grown smitten, despite the fact she needs to forgive the memory of "the same pompous windbag that made me change majors from English to biology."
Mixing like oil and water, Chuck tries to get officious and sometimes vicious Vanessa to lighten up and enjoy life. Meanwhile, Dr. Janet takes some risks and tries to soften her old professor as he's set in his long-winded, unromantic ways. Mutually beneficial, Vanessa tries to get her father to become head of the English department, so he can afford to send her to Stanford. Brother Jim tries to fit in a life all his own.
Sometimes relying too much on heavy sarcasm, the humor isn't always laugh-out-loud funny, but the casting certainly isn't amiss. I like the way the movie undercuts the arrogance of people with intelligence misplaced. Maybe everything doesn't coalesce in the film just like in real life, but in many ways the movie's cohesiveness keeps it consistent.
A J.P.'s Tossup, Er...Heads: 2.5 *'s Fair. I liked it despite its weaknesses. Sometimes it's not funny and happy to be that way, but I was drawn in by the characters.
For fans of intelligent indie movies with quirky characters and smart dialogue, this is a Bversion of 'The Royal Tenenbaums (The Criterion Collection)' and highly recommended for you.
Read Best Reviews of Smart People (2008) Here
Dr. Lawrence Wetherhold's (Quaid) got an impulse problem. When his car's impounded at Carnegie Mellon, where he teaches Lit, he climbs over the fence to get his briefcase. The resulting brouhaha gets his license suspended for the next six months. He does meet Dr. Janet Hartigan (Parker) whose life was changed by taking Wetherhold's class many years ago--major shifted from English to Medicine.
Enter Chuck (Haden-Church) his adopted brother. Being between very odd jobs, Chuck is the only family member with time to squire Lawrence around.
Lawrence's daughter Vanessa (Page) is studying like mad to get into Stanford with a perfect SAT. Between cramming sessions, she hides romance books from her Dad, who'd probably die of horror if he knew she read them.
James (Holmes) the elder son is already in school and unbeknownst to his Dad, is a poet. His poem got accepted by "The New Yorker" before Lawrence even found out.
Lawrence is interested in the doc, but he can't quite get over the loss a couple of years past, of his wife. Her clothes still fill his closet and clearly her memory still haunts him. Chuck and Vanessa try to work on cleaning up Lawrence's life while nearly messing up their own.
Slowly, the characters in the film begin to deal with their own griefs, mistakes, and begin to come to grips with themselves and each other. They're not the most likable or the best fit, but what family is? They're definitely interesting--and you do see character development in the major players.
Want Smart People (2008) Discount?
A self-absorbed college professor lost sight of the need to be sensitive of other people and their feelings when his wife died. Raising his daughter on his own has been difficult, but she's growing up just like her dad. And no, that is not a good thing. (He has a son, too, but he seems at least relatively well adjusted. So this movie is not about him.) The professor's dead-beat brother moves in with them and tries to give perspective to both the professor and his daughter.
Apparently there is a new formula in small-budget, independent comedies. What do you add to a pretentious lead character to create comedy? Thomas Hayden Church. It worked in Sideways, and it worked again here. He is the down-on-his-luck brother who weasles his way in to free room and board. While staying with his brother and niece he shakes them out of old habits and tries to implore them to take control and live their lives free from societal pressures to be something they do not want to be. Sounds heavy, but it wasn't that bad.
This was Ellen Page's big follow-up to Juno. I don't think this was what people were hoping for. As the professor's daughter she brought all of the attitude of Juno with none of the charm.
Dennis Quaid is our nutty professor, our single father. I like Mr. Quaid. I think that his often-exasperated mannerisms are enjoyable, almost Jack Nicholson-esque at times. I find comfort in his schtick, I guess. He was sometimes frustrating, but otherwise good yet again.
Smart People could have been called "Boring People and the Brother," but that is probably less marketable. This is an okay movie with a good cast. And the overall feel of the movie was saved by Thomas Hayden Church. I don't want to give him a reputation he cannot live up to, but the small resurgence in his career has been worthwhile for me.
I love this quirky, smart, dramatic, touching indie film. The acting is superb by actors Jake Sandvig, Jason Ritter, and Rebecca Hall. It has a bit of everything you could want in a film, I just wish it was in theaters for a longer period of time :)
