Smarter to Skip ‘Smart People’

In “Smart People,” Noah Murro’s directing debut about an aging academic and his family, both the ego and gut of Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) have bloated with age. This formulaic indie dramedy starts out boring and ends up an optimistic melodrama that affirms “Yes, people can change!”

Lawrence is in quite the sorry state when we meet him, still wallowing in self-pity over his wife’s death nine years ago. He is disenchanted with every aspect of his job as an English professor, but he saves special scorn for his students. As karmic punishment for Lawrence’s chronic self-absorption, he experiences a seizure that renders him unable to drive for six months. He now depends on others in his daily life; suddenly, (surprise!) his claustrophobic universe begins to expand.

At the ripe old age of 17, Vanessa (Ellen Page) is a world-weary Mini-Me of her father. Clad in plaid and armed with a stock-pile of SAT vocab words, Vanessa is the neo-con version of Juno. Instead of hanging out with friends, Vanessa attends Young Republican meetings on Friday nights, her bedroom walls adorned not by photos of friends but with one of Ronald Reagan.

The film’s best on-screen chemistry takes place between Vanessa and her endearing low-life of an uncle, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church). While Uncle Chuck removes the stick so firmly shoved up Vanessa’s butt, they exchange witticisms and cause the best laughs in the movie.

But chemistry is seriously lacking between the dumpy Lawrence and his charming former student, Dr. Janet Hatigan (Sarah Jessica Parker). Parker is no brilliant actress, but she brings likability to her role; it is easy to see why old Lawrence would fall for her. But why should she fall for this man who is as inconsiderate a date as he was a teacher? A scenario in which a sexy doctor falls for an old selfish man is the stuff of male fantasy and should not serve as the plot vehicle allowing for all the film’s personal improvement epiphanies. But it does.

What is perhaps worse, Quaid and the script portray Lawrence as a cookie-cutter pompous intellectual and add nothing new or insightful to the tired prototype. Being smart isolates you, the movie tells us. “What’s it like being stupid?” a drunken Vanessa asks a bimbo at a bar. “What’s it like sitting alone at lunch?” the bimbo quips back. This is the stupid dichotomy at the heart of the movie.

The movie is called “Smart People” to ironically illustrate how stupid academics are emotionally, and how unconventionally “smart,” others, such as the perpetually underemployed Chuck or pragmatic Janet, can be.

I advise you smart people out there to skip this one.