Smart people, dumb movie
“Juno” fans rejoice. You can catch another witty hyper-verbal performance by Ellen Page in “Smart People,” in which she plays another extremely intelligent teenager. In “Juno” however, her intelligence buoyed her through her world and her problems. In “Smart People,” it is a burden and a shield, her most prized possession that she uses to relate to her widowed father.
Page’s character is the best developed in this film, perhaps because it is just a supporting role and she doesn’t have as much screen time. For stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Thomas Haden Church, they have less to go on. While all three are fairly well-written, there are substantial shortages of character in each. None goes much farther than a snapshot of a person.
Sarah Jessica Parker plays a fairly convincing doctor who encounters her former professor, Dennis Quaid, in the hospital for a head injury. She carries both a torch for and a grudge against him (this is a common combination.) From her feelings for him, and some poorly scripted exchanges with a conveniently chatty colleague, we can extrapolate that he is crusty and distant. His major characteristic is that he can’t remember anyone’s name.
For some reason, everyone seems to hate him; as far as I can tell, it is because he was a really hard grader. So I guess the major dramatic question we face is, will he thaw out and start grading on a curve? Will he re-grade Sarah Jessica Parker’s essay from a B to an A? In the end, it’s kind of hard to get worked up about this, and the writer makes these little quirks work too hard to tell a slight story. If you want your film to be character-driven, you have to give your characters some, well, character.
Thomas Haden Church gives us more, and it is his relationship with his aggressively intelligent niece, Ellen Page, that is the most interesting in “Smart People.” You’ll be shocked to learn that Quaid’s brother is the total opposite of him- free-wheeling, friendly, and not intellectual. You’ll also be shocked to learn that this likable fellow moves in with his brother and helps his young niece open up.
Page’s character gets to be more than just smart. She has a very tough role of unappreciated substitute mommy in her broken family after the death of her mother. When her tough façade rings false, we get to see a real person. Her elaborate vocabulary and her careful, mature diction, lifted from “Juno” minus the sense of humor, actually mean something here.
Unfortunately, her predicaments are terribly interesting either. Basically, she’s trying to decide where to go to college. Again, big deal. These problems are supposed to stand for something more for these people, but in this film they are just props in front of blankness. I would also like to add that this film featured the most ham-fisted, literal soundtrack I have ever experienced outside of an actual musical in which actors sing the event as they happen.
Maybe academia isn’t quite the goldmine of drama that you would guess from the number of films and books set there. Of course, there are many fantastic examples of both. So maybe, you need something more that just a setting. You need real people, not just “Smart People,” to stick there and you need to give them something to want and something to do.
“Smart People” is currently available to rent.
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
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