At the Movies

Search Results

Close Previous Now showing: of Next

Previous Next Close

Related Photos

• Miramax Films, Bruce Birmelin

  

Related Links

• Official movie web site.

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.

comments powered by Disqus

April 9, 2008

Not as smart as it thinks, but ‘Smart People’ has plenty of zingers

By Christy Lemire The Tribune Star Wed Apr 09, 2008, 06:19 PM EDT

HOLLYWOOD — “Smart People” isn’t as smart as it thinks it is, despite some wickedly snappy dialogue. Novelist-turned-screenwriter Mark Poirier gives the capable, eclectic cast some real zingers to play with, but he also loads his script with some plot contrivances that are simply too hard to accept.

Dennis Quaid plays against type as acerbic, self-absorbed English professor Lawrence Wetherhold, who infamously has forgotten the names of his students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for decades.

A bump on the head he suffers while trying to get his car out of the campus impound lot (again) lands him in the hospital, where the chief emergency room doctor, Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), just happens to be one of his former students. Naturally, he doesn’t remember her either, even though she harbored a schoolgirl crush on him. (Inexplicably, she also held onto the freshman essay on which he gave her a C several years ago.)

At the same time, his scam-artist adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), just happens to show up and move in with Lawrence and his teenage daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page), a Young Republican who’s obsessed with getting into Stanford. Lawrence also has a son, a Carnegie Mellon student (Ashton Holmes) who lives in the dorms and doesn’t get much to do.

Longtime commercial director Noam Murro keeps things moving along at a decent clip in his feature debut, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’ve seen this kind of indie dysfunctional-family comedy countless times before. There are also more than a few shades of the superior “Wonder Boys” in here, with its competitive academic setting and self-destructive characters. Quaid’s Lawrence is just as screwed-up as Michael Douglas was in that film, he just doesn’t know it.

All these figures will clearly shape Lawrence for the better, but not without some major resistance from this rumpled, middle-aged blowhard. And they’re all viciously verbal, so they’re up for the challenge of sparring with him — and each other. Chuck urges Lawrence to go out with Janet — and more: “You spend $50 on dinner, that’s grounds for intercourse.”

He also inspires some stirrings in the uptight Vanessa, getting her high and drunk when she should be studying. She’s the kind of girl whose mantra is: “You should really make your bed, it sets the tone for the whole day.” Even though the character is far more politically and socially conservative than Juno MacGuff, the role that earned Page an Oscar nomination and made her an instant star, they’re similar enough in terms of quick-witted temperament and deadpan delivery that you do wonder what other kinds of characters she’s capable of inhabiting.

But the person who has the most influence on him, ostensibly, is Janet — though it’s hard to believe they’d ever get together. The age difference, about a decade, isn’t the problem. The fact that they have no chemistry, and that Lawrence doesn’t appear to have the vaguest glimmer of humanity or potential for redemption, is, and you’ll question what she sees in him. Parker certainly has strong enough comic timing that she’s comfortable bantering with Quaid, they just seem like an ill fit for each other.

The way their relationship evolves also may be difficult to believe, but “Smart People” does end smartly on a subtly lovely up note.

“Smart People,” a Miramax Films release, is rated R for language, brief teen drug and alcohol use, and for some sexuality. Running time: 90 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G — General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R — Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

At the Movies

• Mel Gibson returns in 'Edge of Darkness' It's been seven years since his last film, but Mel Gibson is still playing martyr. One might fairly call Gibson "The Crusader," and not just because of his widely known religious views or because he directed "The Passion of the Christ."

  January 27, 2010 1 Photo  

• 'Saint John of Las Vegas' no divine comedy The deadpan comedy "Saint John of Las Vegas" opens with Steve Buscemi walking into a Vegas convenience store, plopping down an envelope full of cash and asking for a thousand lottery tickets. "Why not?" he asks with a mixture of defiance and despair.

  January 27, 2010 1 Photo  

• FILM REVIEW: 'Tooth Fairy' full of smiles, clichés Just weeks after something dubbed a "squeakquel," we have a movie advertised with the tagline: "You can't handle the tooth." One quakes for the marketing that awaits us for "Marmaduke."

  January 20, 2010 1 Photo 1 Link  

• Vampire thriller 'Daybreakers' is DOA The only lesson to take away from Ethan Hawke's horror-action tale "Daybreakers" is that vampires cannot run the world's affairs any better than we tasty humans can.

  January 11, 2010  

• Effects wow but story limps in 'Avatar' When a film brashly asserts that it will change moviemaking forever, one feels the urge to either take its "king of the world" arrogance down a notch or hail it as the masterpiece it claims to be.

  December 13, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'Ninja Assassin' sports a dull blade When considering the meager merits of the bone-snapping, blood-splattered "Ninja Assassin," it's best to remember the words of John Goodman's PC-challenged character in "The Big Lebowski": "The man in the black pajamas, Dude. Worthy ... adversary."

  November 27, 2009 1 Photo  

• ‘Princess and the Frog’ is a hearty hop The spirit of animation maestro Walt Disney lives on. The studio has gone back to its roots with a fresh, funny retelling of a classic fairy tale in “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s return to hand-drawn animation after a five-year hiatus.

  November 25, 2009 1 Photo  

• Wildness intact, ‘Bad Lieutenant’ returns It’s post-Katrina New Orleans and there are snakes in the water — none bigger than Terence McDonagh, an exceptionally corrupt detective, who slinks through town snorting coke, smoking heroin, harassing women and brandishing a .44 Magnum stuffed in the front of his pants.

  November 18, 2009 1 Photo 1 Link  

• ‘Planet 51’ proves unable to support intelligent life It’s been a big year for animation, with a great variety of styles represented by “Up,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and the upcoming “The Princess and the Frog.”
  
  

  November 18, 2009 1 Photo 1 Link  

• 'The Blind Side' focuses on the feel-good The redemption-minded sports flick "The Blind Side" serves its inspiration straight-up with no twist. Writer-director John Lee Hancock wisely lets the true story of Michael Oher — the African-American teen who found a home and, eventually, football stardom, after being adopted by a wealthy Memphis family — speak for itself.

  November 18, 2009 1 Photo  

• Army drama ‘Messenger’ delivers fitfully It’s an unenviable task, making films about the war on terror for audiences that don’t want to sit through dramatizations of the same bad news they get for real out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

  November 10, 2009 1 Photo  

• ‘Gentlemen Broncos’ a saddle-sore mess “Gentlemen Broncos” is a comedy so weird, so off, so simply wrong that even freakish hero Napoleon Dynamite would have a hard time lending it his catch word, “Sweet.”

  October 27, 2009 1 Photo  

• Gorgeous ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ roars to the screen “Where the Wild Things Are,” the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into “Where the Wild Things Are,” the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact.

  October 13, 2009 2 Photos 1 Link  

• Sheen shines in the gritty ‘Damned United’ You don’t have to be a soccer expert, or even know all that much about the sport, to get sucked into the competing personalities and personal dramas of “The Damned United.

  September 23, 2009 1 Photo  

• Showmanship Moore’s top commodity in ‘Capitalism’ How do you make a movie about the country’s current economic crisis and actually get people to see it? Two obstacles most obviously arise: illustrating such a potentially dry subject in a compelling way, and persuading audiences to pay money for information they can get at home — and feel depressed about — for free.

  September 19, 2009 1 Photo  

• ‘Reasonable Doubt’ like ’80s TV movie Beyond its generic, forgettable title, “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” feels like some throwaway 1980s TV movie, with its implausible premise, dizzying twists, cheesy montages and melodramatic score.

  September 8, 2009 1 Photo 1 Link  

• '9' is breathtakingly original Despite their roughhewn appearance, the resourceful rag dolls in "9'' obviously were crafted with great love and care, both by the scientist who made them in the film and the mastermind behind them in real life, director Shane Acker.

  September 8, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'Extract' tastes too bland Ten years ago, Mike Judge satirized the absurdities of the workplace experience from the perspective of put-upon employees with "Office Space." It didn't do much when it came out but, as we all know by now, it became a cult favorite on cable and home video, to the point where it changed the way you looked at the common stapler.

  September 1, 2009 1 Photo  

• Big Fan' a vivid portrait of sports geekdom Jim Rome urges his listeners (or "clones," as he so lovingly calls them) to have solid takes, to bring it, when they dial into his sports talk radio show.

  August 26, 2009  

• Quentin Tarantino's new movie has its glorious moments If only Quentin Tarantino the director weren't so completely in love with Quentin Tarantino the writer, "Inglourious Basterds" might have been a great movie rather than just a good movie with moments of greatness.

  August 17, 2009  

• No go: Paramount won't show critics 'G.I. Joe' It's the biggest movie of the summer that practically no one has seen. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" opens Friday, but Paramount Pictures isn't screening the blockbuster for critics beforehand. Only a select few writers from blogs and movie Web sites have seen it for review — such as Harry Knowles, the self-professed "Head Geek" from Ain't It Cool News — and their opinions have been mostly positive.

  August 4, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'People' is both funny, frustrating If only Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen hadn't gotten in the car. If only they hadn't left Los Angeles, where everything in "Funny People" was going so well, and driven north to Marin County, where everything falls apart. Judd Apatow would have had his most mature, accomplished film to date.

  July 29, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'G-Force' topples 'Harry Potter' at box office An elite squad of guinea pigs has worked its own brand of magic at the box office, taking the No. 1 spot from boy wizard Harry Potter.

  July 27, 2009  

• 'The Ugly Truth,' battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy, that isn't pretty t the end of the drearily formulaic romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth," as our two leads are finally admitting they've fallen for each other (no spoilers here, folks), Katherine Heigl's character asks Gerard Butler's why he's in love with her. Basically, he says he has no idea, only he phrases it with a word we can't reprint here. Our sentiments exactly.

  July 21, 2009 1 Photo  

• ‘Shrink’ showcases Kevin Spacey’s strengths Say what you will about some of Kevin Spacey’s more questionable choices over the past decade, movies like “Pay It Forward,” “K-PAX,” “The Life of David Gale” and his labor-of-love Bobby Darin biopic, “Beyond the Sea.” When he’s on — when he has strong dialogue to work with and solid actors to play off of — he’s got a presence and a command that are tough to beat.

  July 21, 2009 1 Photo  

• New 'Harry Potter' goes to head of class Harry Potter has kept his fans waiting for two years, the longest school break they have had to endure for a new movie adventure about the teen wizard. It's been worth the wait.

  July 14, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'Bruno' quickly goes out of style The problem with "Bruno" is Bruno himself. Compared to Borat — and it's impossible to avoid the comparison — there simply isn't enough to the character to build an entire feature-length film around him.

  July 3, 2009 1 Photo  

• Review: 'Ice Age' is 'yawn of the dinosaurs' tale There's more action and cuddly creatures for kids to love in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" than in the animated franchise's first two installments. For their parents, it's more of the same, a "Yawn of the Dinosaurs" adventure with some new faces and places but the same central characters rehashing the themes of the first two movies.

  July 3, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'Public Enemies' dazzles the eye but drags With "Public Enemies," all the pieces would seem to be in place for an epic gangster drama: director Michael Mann, who has an affinity for complicated criminals; stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, who are famous for immersing themselves in their roles; and a thrilling true story of brazen bank robbers on the run.

  July 3, 2009 1 Photo  

• 'Moon' a haunting sci-fi tale "Moon" does something extraordinary: It seems familiar and derivative, yet upends your expectations about science fiction and surprises you over and over. Melancholy and mesmerizing, equal parts mystery and character drama, it keeps you guessing until the end.

  June 12, 2009 1 Photo  

• More At the Movies Headlines

© 2013 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. · CNHI Classified Advertising Network · CNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2013. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope. Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
Privacy Policy | AP News Registry privacy policy
Terms and Conditions
Advertiser Index

Events by eviesays.com

News From Terre Haute, Indiana 222 S 7th St Terre Haute, IN 47807