A Sundance Film Festival favorite, “Smart People” provides an all-star cast, quick comedy and realistic plot, perhaps only lacking with a few long, drawn-out scenes and an ending without much closure.
Directed by Noam Murro, the movie is a witty comedy about a Carnegie Mellon professor dealing with life after the death of his wife. Played by a bearded, aged Dennis Quaid, Professor Wetherhold is every student’s nightmare: a condescending, stuffy teacher with a harsh grading system and no desire to learn anything about his students.
Wetherhold’s son James (Ashton Holmes) is a student at the college whose talent in poetry goes unnoticed by his father, causing obvious resentment and a stifled relationship between the two. Vanessa (Ellen Page), Wetherhold’s daughter, is the complete opposite, looking up to her father as a role model as she spends her life working toward perfect grades in high school and the perfect SAT score.
But the family is disrupted by the arrival of Wetherhold’s adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), who has no real job and hopes his brother will give him a place to stay until he can afford to move out. Wetherhold refuses to let him stay, but after jumping a barbed-wire fence to get his briefcase out of his impounded car, Wetherhold has a seizure and is unable to drive for six months, making Chuck his chauffeur.
Hospitalized after jumping the fence, Wetherhold’s nurse Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker) is a former student of his who he, of course, does not recognize. As it turns out, Janet had a crush on Wetherhold when he was her professor, thus setting up the inevitable plot of love that continues throughout the remainder of the movie.
As Wetherhold attempts to deal with his career, family and reemergence into the dating scene, his family must learn to move on from the death of their mother and in doing so find a different side of themselves.
Conflict overflows throughout the movie, but the actors do not allow it to become overwhelming. The issues are often understated but obvious at the same time, with tension between Wetherhold’s daughter and his new love interest and an uncomfortable relationship between Chuck and Vanessa slowly inching into view. It seems as though at any moment the drama will explode.
Things only continue to get worse for the characters, setting up the movie for a stereotypical ending in which everyone finds a solution to life’s problems.
Surprisingly, that fairy-tale ending is not the case.
Some resolve is found as characters grow and change, but in the end many things are somewhat settled. The characters are content, although loose ends remain when the movie ends. The ending does, however, provide a realistic view of life in general. Everyone recognizes their need for improvement and perhaps begins to improve, but by no means are all their flaws made perfect.
Overall, “Smart People” is witty and fun while still providing the element of drama. It attaches the audience to the characters, and relates to real-life situations.
Maybe it is possible for life to be like the movies.
Kelly McDonald can be reached at [email protected].
