Sunday, April 13, 2008
A+E, Movies, Reviews
Smart People
‘Smart’ cast, watered-down script
CREDIT: Courtesy of Miramax Films
Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker in “Smart People”
“SMART PEOPLE”
Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed by Noam Murro
Rated R
Wide release
As indie films go, “Smart People” falls somewhere between the not-so-good (e.g., “Sleepwalking”) and not-so-bad (“Snow Angels”) early-year releases. Rarely believable but generally entertaining, with humor that straddles a line between smart-ass and smart-asinine, it makes the similarly set “Wonder Boys” quite weighty by comparison.
Trying to be the next Jack Nicholson, Dennis Quaid plays Lawrence Wetherhold, an obvious a-hole who parks across two reserved spaces and makes his students wear nametags so he doesn’t have to learn their names. At home, Lawrence pays little more attention to his children, Vanessa (Ellen Page) and Jim (Ashton Holmes), than he does his students.
On the eve of Vanessa’s SATs, Lawrence has an accident and winds up in the ER, where the doctor is a former student of his: Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), whom he once advised to change her major from English to biology.
Because he can’t drive for six months, Lawrence lets his adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), a lovable slacker who’s come around for a handout, become his chauffeur. He moves into the house and starts corrupting too-serious Vanessa into having fun. When he’s too successful, things get complicated.
Having mourned his late wife long enough, Lawrence asks Janet for a date. After 45 minutes of his self-centered pomposity, she concludes it was a bad idea. But Lawrence persists and, incredibly, this otherwise intelligent woman stupidly believes he can change.
Lawrence’s widely rejected book finds a publisher that edits it severely to make it more commercial. Judging from gaps in the narrative, one suspects “Smart People” went through a similar process. Considering these compromises, accepting an R rating that cuts out much of Page’s “Juno” fan base wasn’t smart. 2.5 STARS—Steve Warren