Smart People

SMART PEOPLE (R) is a witty, intelligent take on what being “smart” really means. Director Noam Murro reminds his audience that being smart doesn’t preclude being dysfunctional. In fact, this collection of characters is off the chart with regard to social discord. Unpleasant memories and gaps in communication strategically dot the landscape leaving the bitter taste of the family’s discontent for the audience to digest in the 2 hour span of the film.

Dennis Quaid is well-cast as Lawrence Weltherhold, a bitter, burned out professor of Victorian Literature whose career and family life both yield a negative score on the satisfaction scale. With few social skills, and even less charm, the emotionally bankrupt Lawrence clumsily embarks on a romantic voyage with an ex-student (Sarah Jessica Parker) that seems doomed from the beginning. His estranged brother, Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church), billed as a loser, seems the only voice of reason in the flock.

Smart People is an engaging, well executed film, but its comedy gets lost in its drama.  More depressing than up-lifting, I’m not sure it hits its intended mark.

Mary K. Morgan is a member of the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association. View more reviews at St. Louis Film Reviews