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Visitors Review

Joni 2012-05-19 19:32:10

Not quite

I was surprised to see it was 94 minutes; it felt much much longer. They had these interesting characters developing but then flubbed. There was no need to have the brother be 'adopted' - why couldn't he be a regular brother. There was no need to have sexual tension between the neice and the uncle. And there was no need for the pregancy. In fact, these superficial events clouded the nuanced character and relationship development that could have taken place. Instead it used these tired tricks of plot to substitute for real relationship development. Also it never explained why he was suddenly open to change, why she was attracted to him, etc. Too many things happened without reasons!

Jeff Vice 2012-05-19 02:48:14

This inconsistent but sporadically entertaining comedy-drama does feel a little clinical and icy, though eventually it does warm up a bit. The good cast certainly helps.

2012-05-10 03:20:12

Smart people aren't always

Dennis Quaid plays an English professor so pompous and self-contained that the unpleasant odor of mothballs must emanate off that tweed jacket he wears. Stuck. Stuck in a past when his wife died and he became a widower. Stuck in a career where he allows no growth for himself. Smart people.His daughter, a pompous and bombastic smart person, is a brainiac headed to Stanford. Her uncle pretty much defines her as a robotic android. The uncle and adopted brother comes into the story early on. A n'e'r-do-well who enjoys muddling through life, he, too, is one of the "smart people." He uses his intelligence to become the an unintentional nudge for change for the daughter.Then there's the son, now a student at the same college where his dad doggedly teaches. Dr. Wetherhold most likely uses the same notes prepared the first time he delivered the lecture. Words just billow from him like smoke and not living things to be savored with others--his students. He holds their essays in as much disdain. During the course of the story he positions himself to be named the head of the English department.The pivotal point of the story is the doctor who treats Lawrence in the emergency room and grounds him from driving for six months (actually in retaliation for a C he assigned one of her essays written ten years earlier when she was his student and originally an English major.)They go out to eat. After he delivers a 45-minute soliloquy about Victorian literature, she interrupts to tell him what a stuffed windbag he is and leaves. All these people live in a grim reality of unrequited happiness, acceptance of the status quo, and inertia to change anything. Little by little, life intercedes. There's a miracle that changes everything."Smart People" is about smart people, but not as a positive attribute. To take pride in being smart and not extending beyond oneself is the height of selfishness. Some thinkers would say this is good, but the characters in this story don't even know they are lost in a maze of the thick muck of conceit and the supercilious. However, when two smart people collide and a tiny spark flickers, anything can happen.

2012-05-09 17:45:50

It retroactively kicked brideshead's A$$ http://freezepop-jo.blogspot.com/

brideshead is the "intellignet film moviegoers have waited years to see" Why?! This movie is for smart people it says it in its name it's not trying go all sneaky stealthy trying to hide what it is. I had never seen anything about either b4 going to see them both bnut i could still figure samrt people was gonna be good. Brideshead tried to hide behind a book and everyone knows books suck. Movies are sooooo much better than books and if i wanted sodomites or gays in general I have the first 3 seasons of the L word I could've stayed home and watched for free. Why ami comparing it to brideshead you might ask, well, because brideshead is for intelligent moviegoers, or so the tv tells me. Smartpeople was better. BTW I love all lbgt's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay for gay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My review is weird I konw. but don't let that stop you from seeing this movie. use the money you would for brideshead and buy smart people!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Rainer 2012-05-09 21:44:03

Quaid and Church are funny, but too much of this film is not half as smart as it thinks it is.

S.R. Dipaling 2012-05-09 07:23:25

Dry,downbeat and slow;plenty of potential that works when it doesn't stall

Professor Lawrence Weatherly(Dennis Quaid,keeping the "Rolled out ofbed"look throughout the entire movie,it appears)walks zombie-likethrough his life as a Carnegie Mellon University English instructor,awidower and father to two dyspeptic kids--budding Republicananti-socialite Vanessa(Ellen Page,anti-Juno)and lifeless James(AshtonHolmes),a student at dad's university--who becomes even less personablewhen his un-inspired(but far from stupid)adopted brother Chuck(ThomasHaden Church,effortless and fantastic here)moves in,needing money. Werethat not enough to rankle an already depressed and anti-social man likethe professor,he injures himself in a painfully embarrassing attempt tore-possess his car and his emergency room trip reunites him with aformer student who's now an attending physician(Sarah Jessica Parker).Naturally,since he was a generally snide and tough-to-bear teacher,thisdoctor also is among those who have issues with the prof,but since thisis a quirky movie set around relationships,one can deduce without beinga film major what is about to transpire between those two.Director Noam Purro and Screenwriter MArk Poirer have set up asly,interesting film with real characters and genuine humor. It justfeels like this movie...the right word seems to be drags...andthat,coupled with the sort of forced relationship dynamics(particularlywith the Doctor and her former Prof)make this tough to swallow as awhole product. Still,this movie's an intriguing offering,and based on its parts,thisis quite watchable. Just don't expect any wondrous results in terms ofthe story,because just like its characters,the movie's makers seem alittle too convinced of their own intelligence than feeling like theyhave to prove it. More heart(strange than it sounds)than real savvy areSmart People.

edwagreen 2012-04-30 04:49:48

Smart People isn't Only for the Very Intelligent ***

Dennis Quaid stars as a self-centered intellectual English professorwho still has plenty to learn about learn about life. A widower with 2children, he has established quite a dysfunctional family.Ellen ("Juno") Page plays Vanessa, his intellectually strung-outdaughter who talks about normal sexual mores and is plenty to contendwith. There is also a gem of a performance by Thomas Haden Church, whoportrays Quaid's adopted brother. Appearing to be one with manual laborskills, Church exhibits a lot of intellectual curiosity while certainlyhaving many hangups as well.We also have Sarah Jessica Parker, a former student, and now a doctor,who meets up with Quaid when he is hospitalized.The story does wilt somewhat when the relationships begin to developbut things are neatly tied up. The film shows you that even theintellectual can get caught up in difficult situations. Being smartisn't as great as it has been made out to be.

Kirk Honeycutt 2012-04-30 01:15:49

[Screenwriter] Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow.

Big AL 2012-04-29 03:48:06

Smart movie

A great movie with great actors that is a must see for anybody. It is realistic in many ways that can be see in everyday life. Its one of those movies that start slow and endup great.

2012-04-28 21:21:28

Smart Like a Hangover

Nothing about this tired, self-conscious rip-off of other recent indie comedies says "Smart". A high-profile cast plays a bunch of one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs from Screenwriting 101 as gamely as they can, all the while looking like a stint in the root canal chair would be about as much fun, and the proceedings are set to the most pervasively annoying treacly Edwin McCain meets Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack that never quits. This movie can't even manage some original-sounding background music. If the screenplay is trying way too hard to mimic bits of "Good Will Hunting" meets "Dan in Real Life" meets "Juno" meets "Sideways" . . .well, the squickily upbeat guitar tunes on the soundtrack fit right into that aesthetic. Dennis Quaid has never won an Oscar, but here he gives the Academy what they apparently like in hopes that this time will be the charm. Sporting a beer gut and a massive face-concealing beard both Dennis Miller and Robin Williams would envy, he plays Dr. Lawrence Wetherhold, a crotchety literature professor, widowed years ago, whose grief has solidified into a chronic case of walking depression and general bad attitude. Dr. Lawrence has a son in college at the institution where he teaches, a smart-alecky daughter in high school (played by Ellen Page reprising Juno as Tracy Flick in even worse sweater outfits) and a good-for-nothing chronically unemployed brother who shows up on Lawrence's doorstep asking for money . . .again. When an ill-advised attempt to dodge bureaucracy ends with Lawrence in the ER with a concussion, he runs into a former student, attending doc Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker)and an oddball romance ensues, even though he had given her a C in his course 15 years previously. Along with half the known universe, I was a big fan of Parker in "Sex and the City", but the jury is still out for me as to whether she can actually act, or if Carrie Bradshaw was essentially an extension of herself. Here she's striving for a 'serious' tone, as befits a medical professional, but she only succeeds in seeming low-energy and sad. Nothing about her connotes 'doctor', from her stringy unprofessional hair to her sad-sack, annoyingly insecure delivery. And I guarantee that you have never seen SJP so badly dressed, ever, nor are likely to again. After this movie, I guarantee that "The Family Stone" will actually seem like a tour-de-force acting job to you.Come to think of it, low energy and sad is the vibe the entire cast puts forth, except for Thomas Haden Church, who is essentially retreading his Jack from "Sideways" as a low-rent stoner bum with a really bad haircut and even worse mustache. The lighting is so supremely unflattering, everyone looks haggard and aged, particularly Quaid, but even Ellen Page, who at 22 could be presumed to have some vitality still in her. The atmosphere is postively funeral, and I searched in vain for actual "comedy" within this comedy without success. This is about as laugh-out-loud funny as a wrist-cutting. Indeed--do the filmmakers even understand what normal people consider 'funny'? In this movie, Juno/Ellen's uncle takes her out to a bar (she's 17) and gets her drunk on beer, and then she makes a pass at him and spends the rest of the movie rationalizing away the inappropriateness of the whole scenario given the fact that he was adopted and therefore not her REAL uncle. Just the kind of logic that would appeal to Woody Allen, but profoundly unfunny nonetheless.Oddly, the one kind of charming aspect of this movie is also its downfall: it's set in Pittsburgh in general and Carnegie-Mellon University in particular. As a resident of Western PA during my collegiate years, I can say that absolutely, they got the production design down pat, to the washed-out light, the grimy, narrow and hilly streets, to the Wetherholds' cramped and very middle-class house. Denizens of Pittsburgh will no doubt appreciate the 'cinema verite' feel of their fair city, but unfortunately too much realism is usually the opposite of funny. The last time Pittsburgh looked this good, it was in "Dominick and Eugene" an uplifting story about a retarded garbage man who dies young--a movie just as funny as "Smart People"--which is to say, not at all. After this interminable dose of 'realistic comedy' we gain a new appreciation for artifice in film-making. Though "Smart People" goes to for the grungy, raw and 'real' look in its externals, the script itself is fake to the core. People may look like this (those in need of a Prozac scrip, at any rate), but no real authentic people act or sound like this. They went for the wrong level of realism here; it's easy to make everyone look bad, but not so easy to make them sound appealing. I give "Smart People" a D-minus. I'd like to see a rewrite, this time with the funny put in.

Susan Tavernetti 2012-04-28 03:10:10

Award-winning commercial director Noam Murro helms a fine cast playing all-too-familiar roles.

Greg Maki 2012-04-27 07:47:54

... Not as clever and sophisticated as it thinks it is.

2012-04-23 05:17:19

Great movie!

This review is from: Smart People (DVD) THe movie is pretty good.Fast delivery and that was the best price I could find.Definitely worth it!

Matt Brunson 2012-04-22 19:39:05

A dark comedy that turns out to be only moderately intelligent.

Bob Strauss 2012-04-21 18:01:39

It's not a stupid film, but it could have come off much more smartly.

Moira MacDonald 2012-04-21 05:12:46

Nobody does steely quite like the basso-voiced Page -- her Vanessa is a sort of Young Republican version of Juno.

Dana Stevens 2012-04-15 22:01:15

As tough as Lawrence is to like, Smart People is even harder to hate, mainly because of the sharply observed script by novelist Mark Jude Poirier.

Kyle Smith 2012-04-15 05:52:52

Smart People is an indie film that plays the (jangle, jangle) same chords (strum, strum) as a lot of other heartfelt comedies about too-wise children and codgers taking humanity lessons.

2012-04-09 13:24:40

Dennis Quaid and Thomas Haden Church Have Great Chemistry

I know everyone has talked about Ellen Page in this film (who's great) but an added bonus was the surprisingly terrific chemistry between Dennis Quaid and Thomas Haden Church as brothers. This is not the first time Quaid has played a writing/humanities professor (see the late '80s remake of D.O.A.), but it is a first in terms of the approach he takes. While he has lost his way a little bit (as have most cinematic profs), he's helped back on course through an unusual and effective narrative design maneuver -- the reappearance of an adopted brother played by Thomas Haden Church. True, the lead female character (the aptly named Dr. Hartigan) also helps revive Quaid's character, but the camaraderie between the brothers really is the main attraction.

Matthew Turner 2012-04-08 19:33:32

This is very much a dysfunctional-drama-by-numbers and there's very little here you haven't seen elsewhere but it's worth seeing for a film-stealing performance by Thomas Haden Church.