Dysfunctional family comedies have been making quite comeback lately with unlikely Best Picture nominees such as Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. In their wake, Smart People (co-starring Juno herself, Ellen Page) seems meager at best. It is cleverly written and excellently performed. But somehow that is not enough. It settles into such a middle of the road rhythm of remorseful monologues and biting banter that it ends up being altogether forgettable. Even writing about it now, I’d feel hard pressed if asked to summarize the story with anything greater than sweeping generalizations.So here goes: a downtrodden English prof meets up with a warm and likable ex-student medic (Sarah Jessica Parker) following a comic head injury. The two strike a romantic connection but their efforts to connect grow complicated. He is still mourning the death of his wife and attempting to raise his two children: a slacker (Ashton Holmes) and an over eager wannabe academic teen (Page). She is uncertain if she should look past his cranky persona and reconsider the decent man within. All this is gracefully set on its head by said prof’s lazy brother (Thomas Haden Church) who enters into the mix with a jolt of energy lacking just about everywhere else in the film.
Truth is, there are more than enough hilarious lines and softly sentimental scenes to make Smart People a more than watchable endeavor. Its characters, prickly though they may be, win you over slowly and comfortably with little surprise of revulsion along the way. But for each well-crafted scene there is a fragmented bit of dialogue or a ridiculously hollow montage that makes the film turn cold. So much breezes by momentarily that you’re left to wonder what really matters deep at the heart of this story and what precisely each character is learning along the way. When the movie reaches its conclusion, it’s more of a slight exhale than a satisfying, expressive release of a film’s worth of tension. Smart People leaves the screen as casually and unremarkably as it enters it, leaving its audience mildly amused but mostly, and quite disappointingly, unaffected.
Grade: B-
