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53
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37
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47
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55
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33
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93
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64
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36
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54
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93
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79
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76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Mamma Mia!
xx
Dark Knight, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

83
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80
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76
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47
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80
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59
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55
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60
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70
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49
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83
Chop Shop
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
78
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52
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64
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73
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79
Encounters at the End of the World
62
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64
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51
Finding Amanda
57
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86
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63
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60
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45
Full Grown Men
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69
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74
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63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68
Heartbeat Detector
34
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55
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69
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62
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63
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38
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30
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33
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53
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52
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71
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84
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61
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61
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72
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51
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55
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29
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79
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71
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56
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51
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76
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66
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70
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62
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72
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81
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56
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xx
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71
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54
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70
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72
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83
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56
Unknown Woman
86
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79
Visitor, The
62
Wackness, The
37
War, Inc.
64
Water Lilies
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
55
Without the King
72
Woman on the Beach
64
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
84
My Winnipeg
84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
75
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Wackness, The
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
34
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Smart People
Miramax Films
 |
|
MPAA RATING: R
Starring
Dennis Quaid,
Sarah Jessica Parker,
Ellen Page,
Thomas Haden Church,
Ashton Holmes,
and
Christine Lahti
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy. His teenage daughter is an acid-tongued overachiever who follows all too closely in dad's misery-loving footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne'er-do-well brother has perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can't seem to find passion in anything anymore, not even the Victorian literature in which he's an expert, Lawrence seems to be sleepwalking through a very stunted middle age. When his brother shows up unexpectedly for an extended stay just as he accidentally encounters a former student, Janet, the circumstances stir him from his deep freeze, with often comical, sometimes heartbreaking consequences for himself and everyone around him. (Miramax)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Mark Poirier
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Noam Murro
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: April 11, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
95 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
A sharp, superbly acted character-driven comedic drama.

75
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Smart People, unlike "Sideways" or "The Savages," has a plot that's a little too rote.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
After its rough opening, Smart People settles down to be a funny, wryly enjoyable, effortlessly poignant parable of family life and a splendid showcase for its cast -- especially Page, who handily steals the movie and proves that her "Juno" success was no fluke.

75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Page and Church work so brilliantly together as a comic team that it's worth enduring the leads' utter lack of chemistry together - not to mention the fact they're both wildly miscast.

70
Time
Richard Schickel
There's nothing world shattering about Smart People. No one is ever going to call it a "must see" movie. But it is a trim, intelligent, reasonably amusing little movie. Call it a "could see."

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A good deal of the freshness comes from a grand, clownish slob played by Thomas Haden Church -- he's actually the smartest person of the piece -- while Dennis Quaid occupies the center with a mastery that's all the more notable for its humanity.

70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Poirer and director Noam Murro have trouble bringing this to a satisfying climax, but the characters are credible and sharply observed and all four actors go to town.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow.

70
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
It's the kind of observational comedy, that'll be hard to find come summertime and should be enjoyed while there's still a chance.

70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The great virtue of Smart People, attributable to Noam Murro’s easygoing direction as well as to Mr. Poirier’s wandering screenplay, lies in its general preference for small insights over grand revelations.

70
The New Yorker
David Denby
These small-scale, intelligent movies can fall into a trap: it’s hard to achieve a satisfactory dramatic climax when observation is your principal dramatic mode.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
There much more roiling beneath the surface of these characters and it's a shame we don't come to understand them better. Smart people, dumb choices: it's true for both the characters and the filmmakers.

67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
Dennis Quaid could stand in for Jeff Daniels' similarly toxic snob in "The Squid And The Whale," if only he were a little smarter and a little better-dressed.

67
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
A third of the way through Smart People, I channeled Randy Newman's "Short People" and thought, "Smart people got no reason to live."

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The main problem with Smart People is that it never breaks new ground. This is territory we have seen tilled to better effect by more perceptive motion pictures.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Though it features witty dialogue and good performances, the plot contrivances keep it from being an altogether winning enterprise.

60
Slate
Dana Stevens
As tough as Lawrence is to like, Smart People is even harder to hate, mainly because of the sharply observed script by novelist Mark Jude Poirier. Just when you're losing patience with the movie, it sneaks up on you with a poignant detail or a character-defining turn of phrase.

60
Film Threat
Zack Haddad
It is just too bad that this film isn’t as snarky and groundbreaking as it would like you to think it is.

60
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Dysfunctional family seriocomedy is well cast, but characters and conflicts lack the sharper definition of similar recent exercises like "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Upside of Anger" and Noah Baumbach's films.

58
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
The ensemble can't bring enough, though, to overcome the unoriginal setup and predictable story arc.

50
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Fine actors do their damnedest to make this dumb movie look sharp.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The movie gets bogged down in the formula conventions of romantic comedy, and in the process, it loses all honesty.

50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Smart People tastes as fake as a Wal-Mart corn dog. Besides, it doesn't even know the work is Faerie Queen, not ''Fairie.'' Somewhere, Edmund Spenser is turning in his grave. You don't even have to be smart to know that.

50
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
The middling romantic comedy Smart People, which centers on a hyperintellectual dysfunctional family, is of interest chiefly for the first post-Juno role of Ellen Page.

50
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
It's impossible to tell whether the film's ending is happy because it's happy or because it's ending.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Quaid doesn't have much to work with, and so deflects the portrayal away from the mind toward the body – consistently giving the coot a hunched, pigeon-toed gait. Nice try, but that bird won't fly.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Church is most at home in his character’s skin; aside from the game but strident Quaid, all the leading players are ideally cast. It’s the script that isn’t ideally cast.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Mostly, Smart People is a failure of imagination.

50
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Quaid and Church are funny, but too much of this film is not half as smart as it thinks it is.

40
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
It's like the entire season of a sitcom whittled down to a single episode. There's no time for characterization, no room for emotion, no interest in anything other than moving the story forward. It's all action, no reaction. One minute they're miserable; 90 minutes later, aww better.

40
Empire
Helen O'Hara
Strong performances and a few laughs, but the story feels lazy next to superior efforts recently in the same genre.

40
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
In what world does Smart People exist? Clearly not the real one, though this dramedy wants to think it's filled with ironic insights about love and family.

38
Premiere
Ryan Stewart
Dennis Quaid is mostly lost at sea as Lawrence Wetherhold, the Carnegie Mellon lit professor; he apparently saw fit to tinker with his performance as filming went along, greeting us in some scenes as a noticeably swishy highbrow, while at other moments he's channeling the smiling, drunken menace of Nicholson's Jack Torrance.


The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
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