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It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I am a university professor at a large, well-known, university in Los Angeles. I watched this movie because I got my degree at Carnegie Mellon, and because it portrays a professor.. I found this movie unrealistic, portraying intellectuals in a rather unflattering way. Sure, my alma mater (CMU) got some advertisement. And the movie is entertaining and several scenes made me laugh.. but that does not change the fact that the premise of this movie is misleading.This professor is grumpy and arrogant as heck. He walks around campus like he has a constant hangover. What is this guy's problem? Why the bitterness? The "students just want As" and "my wife died 15 years ago" are really lame explanations. Maybe the bottom 5% of all professors behave like that, but by no means this is the typical case. Actually, at my university, I do not know a single colleague who would fit the bill.Professors as shown in this movie are very rare. Climbing 20-foot fences to get to their impounded car? Carelessly parking in two parking spots at a time? Rigging the clock to avoid student office hours? Self-nominating for a department chair position while serving on the committee to fill this same position? In real life, there is something called conflict of interest, and very much enforced by the university handbook mind you.. (and the movie's premise of "democratic process" somehow overruling it is just ridiculous). Not remembering a single students name? Such arrogant people, professors or not, are never popular, and they should not be. Students rarely (if ever) have crushes on them. In real life, it really would be over after 1 date with that doctor..The movie pretends to give a window into a professor's social life at home, as if it was in some way representative of professors, or smart people at large. It reinforces the stereotype of a maladjusted smart person. Even his daughter is maladjusted. The only socially-sane person is the unemployed renegade brother. So again we have the stereotype of: smart people=socially awkward, average people=socially adjusted. We have already been fed these stereotypes in many films. It is time for a film that shows the true, realistic, life of smart people. Let's see some realistic challenges facing smart people today. Any director out there willing to study this topic and make a realistic portrayal?

This is a comparatively slow-moving film which takes time to explore what teaching for a long time in a university can do to some professors, and what roles single parenting can sometimes mistakenly dissolve into for both parents and their children.The role of the long-suffering, self-contained, in need of renewal/sabbatical/analysis professor was particularly well- written and acted: Dennis Quaid did a great job in this film and, as a viewer, I rarely remembered that he was acting: his demeanor, his stance, his wardrobe, his droning voice--even his eye contact--were just right.As usual, Haden-Church was the actor who made the movie zing. His "just one step out of this dimension" attitude and usual attention to perfection in his acting was a delight. He's one of our great character actors.Ellen Page compels the viewer to watch her delightful portrayal--though I am not yet willing to concede that she is one with her role yet. I continue to enjoy watching her thorough and she is going to be a great actress.I recommend this film highly for thoughtful viewers who enjoy digging into time, place and characters. It's pace is not brisk, but its rewards are great.

A low-budget comedy/drama set in and around the city of Pittsburgh, "Smart People" is so muted and laidback in its demeanor and tone that it practically borders on the innocuous. Yet, it is just that seeming banality that makes the movie work in the long run.A pot-bellied Dennis Quaid plays a snarling, insensitive English Literature professor who's pretty much gone to seed in both his personal and professional life, a character not too far removed from the one played by Michael Caine in "Educating Rita." Lawrence Wetherhold is still so devastated by the death of his wife that he keeps all her clothes hanging in the bedroom closet as a sort of unholy shrine to the dearly departed woman. Needless to say, Lawrence hasn't made any great strides moving on with his life - until, that is, he strikes up a tentative romance with a physician and former student of his (Sarah Jessica Parker) who helps him to begin that too long delayed process of reconnecting himself to the world.There's nothing particularly original or earth-shattering in this umpteenth tale of a burnt-out teacher finding a renewal of commitment and purpose in his profession, but writer Mark Poirier has provided enough in the way of ancillary details of character and plotting to at least keep matters interesting.Ellen Page, for instance, plays Lawrence's overly possessive daughter, Vanessa, a college-bound Young Republican who's more obsessed with earning a perfect score on her SATs than with establishing meaningful friendships with people her own age. Thomas Hayden Church portrays her adoptive Uncle Chuck, a black sheep wastrel who, in point of contrast, makes even Lawrence look like a paragon of togetherness and success. Yet, despite his own troubles and failings, Chuck is the one who tries to get his niece to loosen up a bit and finally start enjoying life.Together these characters drift through life, making wry observations on their situations and relationships on their way to a happy ending.There may be a few too many musical montage sequences for the movie's own good, but the expository scenes, as directed by Noam Murro and performed by the actors, nicely capture the unhurried rhythms and simple ironies of everyday life.

The movie looked a bit too indie for my liking, if there is such a thing. The cast did their part, the storyline wasn't that bad. It's just that there wasn't too much to offer on the whole. Hayden Church stood out in his role, and was a central character to the entire movie. Ellen Page although doing her part didn't distinguish herself any further from her prior works, and displayed her usual lackadaisical attitude to the entire film. Maybe the role required it, maybe not, in any way not impressive. Casting of Jessica Parker was interesting but the film didn't really offer her that much. Kind of a film that you will likely forget than remember. 6/10.