Smart People

Centered around the less-than-ideal lives of the intellectually superior Weatherhold family, Smart People will remind students and professors stuck in the world of straight A's and Ph.D's that sometimes brainpower is just no substitute for compassion.

Lawrence Weatherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a cynical professor at Carnegie Mellon and a middle-aged widower. As if the demands of single-handedly raising his two children Vanessa (Ellen Page) and James (Ashton Holmes) has not been enough to manage, Lawrence is then faced with the unannounced arrival of his unemployed, adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church).

After yet another exasperating day of analyzing Victorian literature and avoiding his students, Lawrence discovers his tatty white sedan, which harbors the vital contents of his briefcase, has been towed. In a scene that most Duke drivers can relate to, Lawrence attempts to circumvent the University parking system by scaling the impoundment lot fence, only to succeed in securing himself a night in the hospital and six months with his freeloading brother for a chauffeur. Could it get any worse for our halfhearted hero?

However, it is this impromptu visit to the ER where Lawrence meets Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student of his who had always had a "thing" for her bumbling professor. After several painfully awkward encounters, and two failed dates Lawrence finally manages to make it home past 8:45 p.m. (wink, wink, nod, nod, poke, poke) and, for the time being, appears to have found love again. However, as the ties between this dysfunctional family thicken-Ellen Page's character begins to fall for her pseudo-uncle (Juno anyone?) while James passes off bar tabs for textbook charges-Lawrence discovers that his own ambitions have blinded him from the lives of his loved ones and the passion for teaching he once knew.

Although at times the film appears too fixed in the sardonic world of the Weatherhold's for its audience to appreciate, director Noam Murro succeeds in capturing the internalized anguish of this emotionally unreceptive family. Quaid proves endearing in his role, uncovering both the dry and emotive sides of Lawrence, but it is truly Church who steals the show, drawing laughter in the most tasteless of moments with that unmistakable deadpan drone he immortalized in Sideways.

In an age when kids are being brought up to believe that an Ivy League education is worth more than their mortal soul, Smart People is here to remind us that our ambition is only a piece of the larger crossword puzzle.