... a deadly dull narrative about four depressed stereotypes who spend an hour and a half going from unhappy to slightly less unhappy.
Comment
08/27/08
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Smart People (2008)
49 %
Reviews Counted: 126 Fresh: 62 Rotten:64 Average Rating: 5.7/10
Consensus:
Despite its sharp cast and a few laughs, Smart People is too thinly plotted to fully resonate.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Theatrical Release: Apr 11, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $9,496,882
Synopsis: Dennis Quaid stars as a bitter, washed out widower in SMART PEOPLE, a film that tackles the lives of several seriously unhappy people in surprisingly funny and touching ways. A hated literature professor at Carnegie Mellon, Lawrence Wetherhold has been earning the scorn of his students,... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes
Director: Noam Murro
Screenwriter: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Composer: Nuno Bettencourt
Screenwriter: Mark Jude Poirier
Producer: Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Michael London, Bruna Papandrea
Composer: Nuno Bettencourt
Reviews
The charm of Smart People is watching these characters squirm and eventually come out of their shells.
08/24/08
Even in pointing out the falseness of talking down to people for the sake of coming across as intelligent, Smart People does just that.
08/18/08
Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page stand out here as a father and daughter who may have high IQ's -- but rate below zero in terms of their human relations skills.
08/11/08
Works too hard to achieve a quirky tone that should come effortlessly.
08/11/08
...succeeds more as an actor's showcase than as a fully-realized, consistently compelling film.
08/11/08
A cast of such sad sacks, that it's pretty astonishing when the lusty sparks begin to fly between any of them, and with an overload of brain power coming across as some kind of mental impairment. Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex and the UniverCity comedown.
08/08/08
It wanders all over the place before ending abruptly. With the talent involved, it seems like such a waste.
06/08/08
Dennis Quaid is the college professor of your nightmares in the dryly humorous, laid-back comedy 'Smart People.'
06/05/08
This is yet another indie populated by quirky characters %u2013 it's no surprise that it came out of Sundance %u2013 but for once, it doesn't overdo the quirk, minus a few exceptions.
06/03/08
Audiences who love seeing cranky, emotionally blocked characters find a chance to bloom will be happy to endure the withering onscreen insults but I didn't have much use for these dyspeptic folks and was happy to see them go.
05/22/08
The film was one big tedious contrivance, but for trying so hard deserves a Gentleman's C.
05/11/08
As much as I enjoyed Quaid's introspective turn, his co-stars play characters lifted straight out of Screenwriting 101.
05/02/08
And since, like 99 percent of all other Sundance-type indies, Smart People is shot in the dreariest grays possible ... the movie's not much to look at, either.
05/01/08
Will Lawrence, at long last, be nice to someone who needs it? "I do have hope for myself," he declares. Good for him.
04/30/08
Smart People aims [at] enlisting Quaid's intelligence and self-awareness without denying him the wit and the grins that keep him so likable on screen. He handles the role well, but you couldn't say he owns it or thrives with it.
04/27/08
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