Review of Smart People (2008) by Scott T — 01 Feb 2011

Decent family drama. A bit depressing in places but altogether well acted. Quaid is great as the grumpy grieving teacher, SJP is only mildly irritating as the doctor/love interest, Ellen Page is the superbright teenager full of angst and selfish quips (sound vaguely familiar?) and the film is stolen by the understated and easy going nature/acting ability of Thomas Haden Church.

Not a great deal happens, characters evolve in unexpected ways and then everyone likes each other at the end. I've seen worse, I've seen better; it's watchable but won't linger in the memory probably an hour after you've watched it.