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Smart People

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 63 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Romance
Written by: Mark Poirier
Directed by: Noam Murro
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 11, 2008
DVD: August 12, 2008
Running Time: 95 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Smart People, unlike "Sideways" or "The Savages," has a plot that's a little too rote.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though it features witty dialogue and good performances, the plot contrivances keep it from being an altogether winning enterprise.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The ensemble can't bring enough, though, to overcome the unoriginal setup and predictable story arc.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Fine actors do their damnedest to make this dumb movie look sharp.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
Strong performances and a few laughs, but the story feels lazy next to superior efforts recently in the same genre.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 63 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mark gave it a3:
Interesting story that was poorly written. Cliche and attempted to be deep -- weak.
Patrick D gave it a5:
The problem with the movie is that it is uninspired. It's not terrible in any aspect. The acting is credible, the direction is okay, but it lacks any heart. The worst sin of the movie is that it's boring.
Tom P. gave it a9:
Loved the tone and humor.
Tony B. gave it a4:
Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church are the only reasons to see this one. Sara Jessica Parker is adequate in a poorly written role, but Dennis Quaid is not even that.
Sam S. gave it a1:
The only thing more pathetic than knowing this movie is the sad and boring autobiography of the playwright, Mark Poirier, is the attempt of Dennis Quaid to conceal the fact that he's not 'acting' but is, in reality, that pathetic.
Craig A. gave it an8:
Coming of middle-age drama about a university professor who begins the film as an overgrown infant and ends it as every student's favorite lecturer.
Trevor gave it a3:
Really disappointed me. The premise has great potential, but the characters are mostly unlikeable. There is no chemistry between the leads, and Dennis Quaid comes off more like a semi-retarded, old pervert than a misunderstood, grumpy genius. Several plot devices are very cliched, and the ending is pretty much as cheesy as you can get.
