Movie Review: 'Smart People'

Noam Murro's fumbling attempts in Smart People to create an even remotely watchable film are about as plausible as his characters' attempts to portray normal human beings. Besieged by overacting as well as a mediocre storyline, it's hard to imagine a duller movie to spend an evening watching.

Regurgitating the old cliché of a struggling, widowed English professor who (surprise, surprise) no longer feels inspired or motivated by those he's charged to teach, the film sees Lawrence Wetherhold's world thrown into turmoil when a former-student-cum-ER doctor treats him for a head injury.

After his rather half-hearted attempts at pursuing her meet with some degree of success, he finds that not all things in the world are as bleak as he is. Some overdue soul searching ensues. As his love painfully stumbles forward, so does his realisation that his self-obsession has led to family dysfunction on the scale of The Simpsons . It takes his low life, irresponsible "adoptive" brother to shine the light of reason into this emotional desert.

A major problem with Smart People is that not only does it follow a nauseatingly conventional methodology, but its key characters, Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) and ex-student, Dr Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica-Parker) are never remotely believable. They are also about as exciting to watch as Thomas the Tank Engine on repeat.

Quaid's attempts at playing an arrogant, bored intellectual are at times so dry and brittle that his few stabs at humour are irritatingly at odds with his deadpan personality. Meanwhile Parker's portrayal of a successful Head of Emergency Services is completely sundered by her annoyingly hopeless attempt at playing the (supposedly) emotionally mature partner.

The only (unexpected) saving grace for Smart People is Thomas Haden Church whose interpretation of the good-for-nothing brother brings a much needed sense of fun to an otherwise tedious creation. Seeing the family for what it is – a bunch of broken souls needing some serious mending – his carefree, comedic nature eventually penetrates his socially backward relatives whom he helps come to terms with loss, loneliness and love.

At times infuriatingly superficial and with sporadic attempts at humour failing dismally to lighten a bunch of emotionally undercooked individuals, this self described dark comedy didn't prove to be such a smart idea after all.

Half a star