Written by Pollo Misterioso
Smart People is a simple film. It is sometimes predictable, has some small surprises, but is really about the small tragedies that happen in life and most importantly about just being human.
This film, directed by Noam Murro, played at Sundance Film Festival and had a limited release in theaters afterwards. With a small cast of only five characters, all with star power, this is a quintessential indie film.
Dennis Quaid plays English professor Lawrence Wetherhold at Carnegie Melon University. He is stubborn, pompous and painfully miserable with his mediocre life. He has two kids, Vanessa (Ellen Page) and James (Ashton Holmes) and a freeloading brother Chuck, played by Thomas Haden Church, who all show up after Lawrence gets into an accident and is unable to drive himself for six months. Due to his accident, he is reunited with an old student Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) who is his doctor and love interest.
Lawrence is trying to get his book published and become head of the English department. Both of these events challenge him to think about what is truly important to him and if it is what he really wants. Vanessa acts like a forty-year-old woman stuck in an eighteen-year-old body; she cooks and cleans for the house, all while buried in her studies as she tries to get the perfect SAT score. Her journey begins when her uncle arrives and teaches her that she can have fun and make friends.
In small films like this, when the story is so sharply focused on the development of the characters, the interaction of the ensemble is so important. Bottom line, this cast works. With the delicate subjects explored (this includes an interesting relationship between Vanessa and Chuck), there is a seriousness kept, but never does it become uncomfortable or tragic to watch.
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