Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: Blu-ray
Brand: Miramax
EAN: 0786936755978
Format: Anamorphic
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
MPN: 75597
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Release Date: 2008-08-12
Running Time: 95
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: 2008

Driven by a clever script and fine performances, SMART PEOPLE is set in the land of academia, a place where both Lawrence and Vanessa have taken refuge and plunged themselves into as escape from the external world. In spite of their high IQs, both father and daughter are equally clueless when it comes to navigating relationships. This becomes obvious as Vanessa develops a line-blurring relationship with her uncle, and Lawrence stumbles in romancing his doctor. If Vanessa wants a shot at happiness and Lawrence wants to make things work in his love life, both will have to adopt new attitudes or risk further alienation. Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Thomas Hayden Church.
Much in the manner of Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, the very funny and bracingly intelligent Smart People concerns a college instructor meandering through life until unexpected developments force a cascade of personal changes. Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid), a recently widowed literature professor, is a numb and chilly intellectual who rebuffs his students, ignores his all-but-emancipated teen kids (Ashton Holmes and Juno’s Ellen Page), and spurns cries for financial assistance from his ne'er-do-well but rather soulful adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church). After an accident lands Lawrence in the hospital and deprives him of the right to drive, someone else falls into his bleak sphere: Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker), a physician and former student of Lawrence who remembers her disappointment in him as a teacher and role model. Against all logic, Janet and Lawrence become a romantic item, a choice for which neither of them is entirely prepared. Meanwhile, Chuck and Vanessa (Page) enter an awkward phase in their relationship as niece and uncle, just another sign that the Wetherhold clan has become too insular and self-referential. Screenwriter Mark Poirier's inspired and literate story sets up lots of chaos, attitude, and cross-conflict, then hangs back and lets the characters verbally spar, much to our great amusement. What's happening, however, are deep changes in relationships and destinies that Lawrence and the others naturally resist, until they can't. Director Noam Murro knows one of his most important contributions to the film is to stay out of the characters' way and provide Poirier's barbed humor a supportive setting. Quaid is outstanding as the pivotal figure in this tale, a man who looks creaky and washed up beyond his years, but who is not entirely past redemption. --Tom Keogh

Customer Rating:
Summary: OK entertainment
Comment: A movie about drab intellectuals. It's like watching a baseball game, with long periods of boredom punctuated by brief moments of action and excitement. Of course, life is like that sometimes. And some people like baseball. It was OK.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: SMART MOVIE
Comment: from the producers that brought us "Sideways" comes "Smart People". If you enjoyed the wit of "Sideways" you will enjoy this also. This has to be Dennis Quaid's best movie in years. "Sideways" alum Thomas Haden Church returns for another funny, goofy role. Ellen Page is refreshing and touching. Sarah Jessica Parker's role is some of her best work.

The writing gives the actors a lot of juice to work with and good writing makes good actors and the writing here is good.

I will not give plot details...so rent this one TODAY!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Smart People (and not so smart) Won't Like This Movie
Comment: If you need one word to sum up this film, that word is FLAT! Dennis Quaid is miscast as the depressed college professor/father (is that very fake gut pillow necessary?) And Jessica Parker as the new girlfriend/physician (do female doctors really wear their long hair hanging down around their face all day while treating patients in a hospital?) is also working beyond her range here. What is supposed to be dark comedy is unconvincing and forced. You get the feeling there was no time for rehearsing scenes which only magnifies Quaid and Parkers' limitations. The characters are so under developed that you end up having to believe the people here are what they are, feel what they feel and do what they do, simply because the others say so. Even the talented Haden Church (Sideways) and Ellen Page (Juno) are wasted on a very stiff screenplay.
I can't imagine most fans of any of these four actors will find any satisfaction in this uninteresting tale.
The one upside is a pleasant, youthful, soundtrack which unfortunately seems tacked on to give the scenes emotional depth which just isn't there.
Skip this one...................

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Customer Rating:
Summary: No Sideways, But Still Very Entertaining!
Comment: I tell you folks, not many actors in history can do what Thomas Haden Church does. He is so underrated and underappreciated. He doesn't do a ton of movies, but when he is on his A-game, not many people are better. He tends to steal a scene, seemingly unintentionally. He's just good, really good.

Dennis Quaid has sort of been out of the radar for awhile and did a very good job playing a self-absorbej, cynical, jerk-of-a-proffesor. His character is so sure that everyone else on Earth are idiots except him that he talks down to everyone. Quaid played the foul tempered father surprisingly well.

Sarah Jessica Parker really impressed me too. She seemed to really try to be as un-Carrie Bradshaw like as possible. Fortunately, it worked for her. Her character was a former student of Quaid's character that had a bit of a crush on him. They, by chance, run into each other in an ER and begin a relationship that is unfavorable by Quaid's daughter, played by the very talented Ellen Page.

The only complaint I can give the movie is the fact that Page plays a Neo-Conservative teenager that has only one goal and that is to go to a top notch college. Oh and serve her father, brother, and uncle like a housewife. It just didn't work and it wasn't her fault I don't think. I came to the conclusion that it was probably a casting mistake. But nothing major to worry about.

Overall, a very good movie that guys and girls over the age of 16 will likely enjoy. It is a well written film with no special effects or big action scenes but a dialogue-lovers delight.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: for smart people comes a movie of the same title
Comment: Smart People is a situational dramedy that's about the everyday rather than a grand plot. However, there's enough description, cinematography, and character development and a sheer respect for the characters to make the movie delightful and sympathetic. Ellen Page is marvelous in her role as Vanessa, the exemplary daughter, who takes on the role of being "the perfect little housewife" as her brother exclaims and Dennis Quaid shines as a middle-aged grumpy professor for whom life is a series of seeming success that are actually demeaning failures. Smart People took me by surprise. It's not often enough that a little gem like this - with an intelligent script and interesting, if majorly flawed, characters - hits the Silver Screen.

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