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SMART PEOPLE |
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SMART PEOPLE
Movie Review
Directed by Noam Murro
Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker
Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church
Review by Movie Review
SYNOPSIS:
Into the life of a widowed professor comes a new love and an unexpected visit from his adopted brother.
REVIEW:
Your classic character study film - this time it's a story about a man who needs to learn how to mingle and correspond with the rest of the people in the world. He's your typical English Professor who's overread and underdeveloped in art of small talk. Interesting thing about this film is that it's storyline and characters are very funny; but for some reason they decided to make a drama out of it. If they made a comedy and didn't take themselves too seriously (ironically enough - the theme of the film), then they got themselves a solid film.
There really isn't that much conflict in this film played dramatically. We meet people throughout the 90 minute film who really don't change all that much at the end. They maybe have grown a bit in the 7 month storyline, but that's really the nature of how human beings are. We all grow in that time frame really, but there isn't a movie that should be made about it.
None of the characters really don't have any real worry happening in their lives. None are lacking on obtaining food or shelter, they are just pretty sad people who seem to have lost their way.
It guess the theme of this film is that you must 'get over yourself' in order to be happy. Pychologists say a common happening in human nature is that an individual tends to lean towards their major strength. The strength of these characters is their intellect; hence the title of Smart People. And because they have leaned so far to their smarts, they really have a hard time being happy in life because they never use their heart or real inner souls.
The most intriguing relationship in this film is between the Young Female Alex P. Keaton type teenager, played well by Ellen Page (star of Juno) and her underachieving but lover of life Uncle, played by the always great Thomas Hayden Church. Great relationships in life and in film are always about people who are equally learning from each other, and that is the case with this relationship. Problem is that this is the third subplot of the film as we have to sit through the other two main plot and wait for this one to occur.
And that's the basic problem with this film: all of the characters are not equally interesting. Most of us who went to University know the type of Professor that's portrayed in this film. Yes, he's a human being with good qualities, but it's hard to like this person because of his power to control to cover his obvious insecurities. He learned a bit in the end of this film, but not enough in this reviewers world.Not the funniest or entertaining film in the world, but interesting nonetheless. Just not enough more me to recommend it.
2 stars out of 4!
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