Smart People
Directed by Noam Murro
Starring Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Camille Mana
Rated R
Miramax Films
Released on April 11, 2008

Smart People: Whatever Gets You Through The Semester

“Try to be your normal, humorous self. The guy you were before the tailspin. Do you remember that guy? People love that guy.” — Jack from Sideways

“Things are good here. Teaching is going well. And I’m playing the best tennis of my life. Maybe that’s an illusion, but… it feels that way.” — Bernard Berkman from The Squid And The Whale

“These children haven’t been properly parented in many years. They’re practically feral. That’s why I was brought in.” — Chuck Wetherhold from Smart People

I think there needs to be some kind of award given to Dennis Quaid because he is a reliable actor ever since Breaking Away, The Long Riders, The Right Stuff, The Big Easy, Innerspace, and other films that he dominated in the late Seventies and the Eighties. He is consistently good. Each decade finds him taking chances in big and small films — Savior, Gang Related, Far From Heaven, In Good Company. The Rookie, Any Given Sunday, Traffic, Frequency and many others. He is the bright spot in mediocre and flawed films such as The Day After Tomorrow, American Dreamz, Wyatt Earp and Vantage Point. He is too damn likable to play President Staton in Paul Weitz’s ambitious, but flawed satire, American Dreamz. There is something about Quaid that we sometimes fail to grasp — his humanity.

As Professor Lawrence Wetherhold in Noam Murro‘s Smart People, we see once again that Dennis Quaid is able to take an unusual role and turn it to his advantage. Wetherhold is the antithesis of the Gordo Coopers and the Doc Holidays he has played in the past. Lawrence Wetherhold seems to be the perfect companion to his Dan Foreman from In Good Company. Both characters go through midlife crisises and handle them in their own ways. Lawrence Wetherhold is another triumph in Mr. Quaid’s impressive resume.

It would be easy to say that Smart People is the thinking person’s Dan In Real Life or a smarter version of Little Miss Sunshine, but these statements would miss the point. Smart People has so much more going for it. Yes, it owes more to Wonder Boys, Sideways and The Squid And The Whale because it deals with academics and writers. It certainly belongs in that wonderful genre of independent quirky films such as Juno and Little Miss Sunshine. It has a little bit of each in it. There are shades of Grady Tripp from Wonder Boys, Bernard Berkman from The Squid And The Whale and Miles Raymond from Sideways in Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of Professor Lawrence Wetherhold.

Lawrence Wetherhold is an English professor at Carnegie Mellon who is in a horrible rut. He is in eternal mourning for his dead wife. He is confident in his convictions that he is smarter than everyone else around him. He is the father of two children who are on opposite ends of the spectrum. His son, James (Ashton Holmes) is a student at the college and an aspiring poet. James cannot tolerate his father’s authoritative manner. On the other end of the spectrum is Vanessa (Ellen Page) who looks up to him as a role model for his contrarianism. Vanessa, like her father, feels very superior and smarter than all of those around her. She is very confident in her own conservatism. As Vanessa, Ellen Page is no longer spouting Diablo Cody catchphrases like “honest to blog”, but rather a twisted younger mix of Peggy Noonan and Phyllis Schlafy. Ellen Page has proven she can play the young adult who is clever beyond her years as she did in Hard Candy and Juno. While this may seem old, she manages to make it seem fresh as Vanessa.

As a widower, a professor of Victorian Literature, a single father and an unpleasant son of a bitch, Lawrence has his hands full. In the beginning of the film, he suffers from a fall after trying unsuccessfully to get his car out of an impound lot after it was towed. This brings him to the hospital emergency room where he meets Doctor Janet Hartigan beautifully played by Sarah Jessica Parker. It turns out that Janet was a former student of Lawrence’s back in her undergraduate days. This reunion revives an undergraduate crush she had on him. With Lawrence’s medical condition, he cannot drive for six months and needs to hire a driver. Vanessa will not do it– the college admissions process, the SATs, and Young Republicans are the focal point of her life. Enter Lawrence’s adoptive brother, Chuck, played by scene stealing Thomas Haden Church. As in Sideways, Church walks away with every scene in the film. To Lawrence, he has never amounted to much, but his entrance into the film provides a perfect contrast to Lawrence and Vanessa Wetherhold’s unhappiness. While they appear to act much older than they are, Chuck’s refusal to act his age is just as defiant an act. The introduction of Chuck and Janet serves as a wonderful way to balance the dysfunctional nature of the Wetherhold clan. As Janet, Sarah Jessica Parker is given a rich part to play. At first she seems miscast because this is a far cry from Carrie Bradshaw from the Sex And The City HBO series or the characters she played in the romantic comedies such as Failure To Launch and The Family Stone. Amazingly, she pulls it off because there is great chemistry with Dennis Quaid. One of the main reasons this type of film works so well is that everyone has great on screen chemistry. Quaid and Church play off each other very nicely as do Page and Thomas Haden Church. Chuck stays in the guest room and starts an awkward friendship with Vanessa. Lawrence meanwhile pursues an affair with Janet that will create a rivalry between her and Vanessa. The introduction of these characters is vital to get Lawrence and offspring out of the ruts they are in. Janet and Chuck represent renewal for everyone involved.

Smart People is the first film directed by Noam Murro and the first one written by Mark Jude Poirier. For a debut film, it is above average. One does see a lot of familiar themes and characters from earlier independent films. Dennis Quaid’s Lawrence Wetherhold certainly brings to mind other academic characters from earlier films such as Wonder Boys and The Squid And The Whale. Still, the film has a certain freshness to it. Poirier must have spent some time in academia because he seems to get it right. My older brother is a college professor and the scenes of Lawrence in the classroom and department meetings correspond to his war and horror stories of the academic landscape. It is a solid screenplay. It is a very busy screenplay with even an unplanned pregnancy in it that brings to mind that Ellen Page cannot escape these kinds of films. With all the busy plot points, the film never drags. At ninety-four minutes, the film moves along at fast pace. It is a smart, but never condescending film. Each of the characters goes through changes. In that sense it is the perfect screenwriting 101 project, but do not hold that against it. Each character matures as the film concludes. Yet if Thomas Haden Church does steal every scene he is in, but it is equally gratifying to see him bond with Dennis Quaid in the film. Watching the two actors have to deal with each other and overcome their differences may be the most rewarding aspect of the film. Church’s Chuck is very much like Steve Carell’s Frank Ginsberg in Little Miss Sunshine. Once he enters the film, we know we are in good hands. Their presence makes you glad you bought the ticket and took the ride.