Screen scene: “Smart People”
By Guido Pellegrini
April 10, 2008 9:01 p.m.
“Smart People” has no reason to exist. It is a mundane vehicle for rehashed themes, starring a parade of talented actors who do their best to demonstrate why they should really be doing something better.
The plot revolves around brilliant English professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid). He has a daughter named Vanessa (Ellen Page), who lovingly follows in his intellectual footsteps, acquiring all manner of exorbitantly high grades. They are both exceedingly intelligent, but are lacking in their capacity for human connection. As for James (Ashton Holmes), Vanessa’s brother, he is not nearly as distant as the rest of his family, evidently enjoying a social life and developing skills in poetry during his own time.
Matters begin to change when Lawrence’s stepbrother, Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church), moves in with the Wetherholds. He is a free spirit, which means that he will teach the coldhearted characters a little something about life. In particular, his lessons are aimed toward Vanessa, who needs to relax and have fun. As for Lawrence, his own internal transformation is inspired by a woman. He falls in love with Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a doctor who awakens his passions after a 10-year hiatus following the death of his wife.
Noam Murro’s film is smothered by its adherence to tired conventions: the silly but wise ne’er-do-well, the power of love, the stuck-up person who learns about tenderness ““ these are all boring set pieces that have already been employed elsewhere. Sometimes, a lack of originality can be validated by excellent execution in storytelling. That is not the case here.
The film has an incessant tendency to verbalize meaning. “Smart People” is at its best when it works visually, lingering on the mannerisms of its protagonists. Quaid and Page are both particularly excellent in their respective roles. Every one of their facial twitches and awkward movements tells us volumes about their characters.
But the film does not let these performances breathe. Dialogue consistently informs us that both father and daughter need to reach out to others, stop conforming, live a little and crawl out of their shells. This constant barrage of thematic exposition ultimately dilutes the effectiveness of the acting work.
A riddle is simply not that fun if the answer is given to us before we have figured out its mysteries. And that is what “Smart People” essentially becomes. It is a riddle to which we already know the solution.
