Review of Smart People (2008) by Grëg W — 16 Oct 2009

While funny and intriguing in a lot of parts, the characters are unremarkable and almost show no emotion whatsoever, particularly dennis quaid, thomas haden church, and even ellen page. with the high quality of the actors, you would expect a lot more from it.

the story revolves around lawrence wetherhold (quaid), an uncaring college professor who is just going through life without anything interesting him. his life starts to turn when his brother chuck (haden church) shows up to live with him and his daughter vanessa (page) for a while.

after lawrence suffers a blow to the head after a failed attempt to get his car from an impound, he wakes up in the hospital to find a beautiful doctor named janet (sarah jessica parker) taking care of him, and takes an interest in her, going as far to ask her out and subsequently impregnating her later.

meanwhile, vanessa and chuck hit it off as good friends, with chuck smoking pot with her and buying her alcohol. at first, vanessa is a chip off the old block of her father until all the care coming from her uncle causes her to try and kiss him.

her excuse is "I'm adopted so it's ok". thankfully, chuck rejects her and simultaneously decides to stay away from her for the rest of the movie. things progress and everyone seems to live happily ever after, blah blah.

like I said, while some parts are funny and intriguing, it's really just a slow and mostly uninteresting movie.