Smart People (2008)-Patrick Wood
Smart People (2008)
By Patrick Wood
If somehow Smart People, a new ‘dramedy’ penned by novelist Mark Poirier and directed by newcomer Noam Muro, gains enough traction among mainstream audiences, don’t be alarmed if it makes a surprise appearance in a venomous Hillary stump speech. The film’s white, upper-middle class, Pennsylvanian intellectuals could have walked straight onto screen from an Obama rally. But, Hillary would rasp, they don’t know how to relate to the blue-collar working class! They’re elitists! They harass Thomas Haden Church and can’t open up to Sarah Jessica Parker! Clap, cheer, cackle, cough.
For moviegoers clamoring for another chance to watch a curmudgeonly, pot-bellied writer with a penchant for pleated khakis and corduroy jackets simultaneously hate others and himself, all on the big screen, today marks an occasion for wild celebration. Lawrence Weatherhold (Dennis Quaid) is in a rut. Widowed and failing to push his recent book (on literary criticism) into publication, Quaid’s college professor lashes out by parking illegally, not learning his students’ names and berating his son for spending too much money at the campus bookstore. With the crash landing of his adopted brother Chuck (Haden Church) in the guest bedroom, Lawrence gets a new human dartboard, complete with ghastly Fu Manchu and ass-less jumpsuit nightie.
The downside of Lawrence’s stubborn belligerence, unsurprisingly, proves to be the springboard for his personal journey when it lands him in the hospital. See, when campus security finally tows his double-parked car, Lawrence scales a fence to retrieve his briefcase. A seizure, and an especially equine Sarah Jessica Parker as a former student with a remnant crush on her old professor, follows. No longer able to drive himself, Lawrence (who demands to sit in the back seat because riding in the passenger side of the car makes him nauseous) must subject himself to the company of his adopted relative and a potential romantic interest for transportation.
Bearded and soft, Quaid brings an appropriate amount of weariness to the role. His old, blue eyes convey all the undercurrents of self-loathing and insecurity rushing under Lawrence’s gruff, arrogant exterior. The belated arrival of this performance invites inevitable comparisons to Jeff Daniels in The Squid and The Whale and Paul Giamatti in Sideways and while Quaid’s performance isn’t as revelatory as either of those two, it should prove a vehicle more encouraging than not in establishing some sort of stock in the concept of The Rookie star as a legitimate indie leading man.
But Parker, who has failed (intentionally) in The Family Stone and (unintentionally) in Failure to Launch to ignite any sparks with the male costars of her recent roles, doesn’t quite fit as the doctor to fix Quaid’s professor. Her character (Janet Hartigan) jumps from one big decision to another, without much explanation or credibility. A two-pronged effort, Parker’s stoniness and Poirier’s lazy scripting, keep us at bay from Hartigan and, consequently, her romance with Lawrence.
Not to say that Smart People doesn’t yield anything interesting in the way of female character development. Vanessa Wetherhold, as played by Ellen Page, is a bitchy Young Republican who actually admires her father for his self-absorption. Confident but lonely, precocious but naïve, Vanessa doesn’t so much venture beyond the trappings of Page’s ironic persona as make them feel new again. Her scenes with Hayden Church’s stoner delinquent prove to be some of the most fascinating, and delicate, in the film.
Even with its flaws, Poirier’s script is smarter than those of most films in either the local multiplex or arthouse at the moment. Full of snappy dialogue, unusually accurate portrayals of academic life, and enough quirks to keep the swiftly paced plotting from seeming overbearingly conventional, Smart People rarely bores. But it lacks that something else, the glimpse into the Santa Ynez wine culture of Sideways or the gut-wrenching blow-by-blow of a parents’ separation in The Squid and the Whale, to warrant any major attention. I doubt it’ll even make it onto Hillary’s radar.
Copyright C. 2008 Patrick Wood