Review of Smart People (2008) by Jefframone — 06 May 2008

"Smart People" = Dumb Movie. There is nothing really nothing knew going on here: Dysfunctional family of characters lead by a curmudgeon widower father who learns to love again. Everyone is strangely miscast, no one does anything really surprising or even interesting.

It's like the screenwriter just assumes that we know these kinds of characters (and we do) and just lazily plops them into a quick-moving current that spills into a basin of predictability. Perhaps the most laughable character in the movie, is that of the success-obsessed, young Republican, Stanford-bound teenage daughter played by Ellen Page.

This character is the polar opposite of the titular character played by Page in "Juno", I can't blame her for wanting to do something really different. It would be really ease for her to get type-cast as a wise-cracking teenager.

But she is hardly believable in this role. But not because of her acting, but because of the writing. She almost doesn't go see her dad in the hospital because it's on the eve of her SAT exam; her bedroom walls feature a photo of Ronald Reagan among the myriad blue ribbons and other awards; the dialog is trite and really hard to believe that it's coming out of a teen's mouth.

I've not seen it, but I've heard this movie is much like "Wonder Boys". One can only assume that it's better. Save your money, rent that film instead and order a pizza.