Smart, funny, well written and acted with the only weak link being the horse-faced tranny in disguise mrs. parker. Smart People brings a new take on the dysfunctional family dramedy.

Grade A

Smart People is well-acted, but uneven. Despite seeming like a "quirky" independent film, it's actually fairly formulaic. Despite this, there are pleasures to be had with this film. Mark Jude Poirier's dialogue is effective; the characters show themselves to live up to the film's title in their various wordy conversations with each other. The best thing about the film is its talented acting ensemble. The reliable Dennis Quaid is solid as a curmudgeon whose personality begins to soften, Thomas Haden Church provides most of the film's comedy, Ellen Page shines as a character equally as intelligent as Juno but way more type-A, and a subdued Sarah Jessica Parker is appealing despite having the most underdeveloped character in the film. Some of the scenes work very well, but others do not, usually as a result of inconsistent character development (mostly in the case of Parker's character). Essentially, a decent film with a few too many flaws to call it "very good." B-

I saw it yesterday. And I agree with Libs on this one. Great acting and dialogue, but the script itself is very uneven.

Grade: B/B-

21. Be Kind Rewind. Leatherheads. An elite list of the crap I've sat through in the last few weeks.

And not one of them came close to the gross shittiness of Smart People. Where does one begin? This was written and directed with all the focus and wit and ingenuity of a cancelled-after-one-episode ABC Family sitcom.

Thomas Haden Church was the best thing about this movie and he, frankly, isn't all that good. Ellen Page crushes my goodwill and seems to confirm fears that she's a one-trick pony. Dennis Quaid, an underrated performer I love terribly, is adrift at sea here, reduced to a series of unconvincing tics. And Sarah Jessica Parker, well...her character seems to be from Mars, so I really don't know how convincing she was.

This movie is trite, annoying, and feels three hours long. It also has the single worst collection of songs masquerading as a soundtrack I've ever been unfortunate enough to hear.

Early frontrunner for worst picture of the year.

Is this movie as smug, condescending, and utterly obnoxious as it looks? Cause part of me actually feels like that would be impossible.

Yeah, it gets incredibly smug and/or condescending at times.

One of the worst movies I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through. It was like the creators of the movie were trying to take every single unlikable character they could assemble and cram them into one movie. I love Dennis Quaid but his monotone, asshole performance is horrendous. It also has two of the worst sub-plots in the history of movies. The incestuous relationship between Ellen Page and THC is disgusting and unneeded, and the pregnancy of SJP's character is tacked on and put in for purely emotional punch. So in the end? Nobody changes but they all learn to live with each other. Great, worst 2 hours of my life. And yes the movie was only an hour and a half. Also, nothing was funny. Not one smile.

- D-

It didn't really bother me. He wasn't really her uncle, he was her adopted uncle, so it's not exactly the same thing.

SMART PEOPLE - 5/10 ( C )

The problem with "Smart People" is that it just tries too hard. Everything coming out of the character's mouths seems forced and phony. It's like the equivalent of someone throwing around big words that they looked up in a Thesaurus to sound smarter than they actually are. I was mostly annoyed by Ellen Page and her character, and even though I loved her in Hard Candy and Juno, I'm getting sick of the same old schtick from her. If she doesn't do something remotely different soon I think I'm going to lose faith in her as an actress. I didn't buy her character here at all. All of the characters here are like caricatures and they have no dimension to them. I liked Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church though, but this movie and its characters just doesn't feel genuine. For a much, much better and more real portrayal of family dysfunction, go with the gem "The Savages."

SMART PEOPLE (2008)



What a mess. There's such a big buildup with all these "uniquely quirky and diverse" characters leading to some sort of larger-than-life revelation and it quickly pulls out when it hits the 90 minutes mark. A half attempt of a shake n' bake love child between Little Miss Sunshine and The Royal Tenenbaums. There are some moments of credibility to witness throughout the running time, but ultimately it fails to deliver what it promises. As for the performances, all are solid and in their best shape (especially Sarah Jessica Parker who keeps surprising me outside of t.v. smash hit Sex and the City), though Ellen Page, while precious eye candy, can't seem to get rid of her Juno character quite yet. Smart People is watchable and certainly not offensive to the unsmart like I've heard somewhere around, but I can't help but seeing it as a waste of time. The problem lies on the screenplay, which focuses on too many issues and none at the same time. The biggest and obvious example would be the character of the son, James, who could be cut out of the picture and replaced with more odd and rarely used English words. It sounds like I hated the film, but I didn't. I just like pointing my finger at it because its flaws scream at you.

5/10 (C-)

Oh Dear. You know a film is trying to hard to be quirky and off beat when the main character takes up two parking spaces because he is so uninterested in life.

Ellen Page gives further confirmation that she is completely incapable of delivering a character beyond Juno-Lite while Quaid's sad sack routine gets old after about 10 minutes. The only saving grace in this is Haden Church and even thats not enough.

I wasted 5 dollars from Blockbuster renting this film...

I fell Asleep 5 times.


I like such off beat films, but please make it interesting!!

Very enjoyable dramedy. Definitely worth checking out.


B+