Smart People

I will watch anything that has Ellen Page in it. She is beautiful. She is magnificent. She is absolute perfection. Better than Audrey Hepburn, better than Marilyn Munroe. She is smart, and witty and has a smirk that makes you realize that she knows exactly what she is doing.

It is for these, and a few other reasons, that I decided to give Smart People a go. Hailed as a witty look into the lives of a prickish college professor, his “underachieving” son, his “overachieving daughter”, his “functionally retarded” adopted brother and his “beautiful” (and this being the biggest stretch), doctor, it came off as all these things.

It was witty when it was supposed to be and sad when it was supposed to be. Dennis Quaid does something I’ve never seen him do before… be fat. He is an absolute prick, he is sadly alone and is terribly depressing, and that is exactly what he is supposed to be.

Ellen Page is neurotic and sad and also alone, which is exactly what she is supposed to be. She is every single person you have ever met who does not know what it is like to have fun.

The biggest surprise in the entire film would be the performance of Thomas Haden Church. While I typically find him irritating, overbearing, sad or pathetic, I found him ALL of those things in this. At least at first. As you get to know him a little better, you realize that he is the socially incapable glue that holds the entire loonie bin family together. He is witty, funny and sweet in ways that I have never seen him be before.

Sarah Jessica Parker is actually decent in this, despite the fact that I typically think of her as the ugliest, worst actress in the history of time.

All in all, this is a great follow-up, for Page, on the success of Juno. She shows that she is a tremendous actress who has greatness waiting for her and further solidifies Quaid as a great character actor.