Michael LownSmart People: supply shortage expected
April 29th 2008 02:08
Smart People is like the bastard first pancake of Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. Only it came third. It’s good, but you know it’s been done better in circumstances both funnier and more moving.
Dennis Quaid stars as Lawrence, a widower and English professor in the grandest tradition of Ebenezer Scrooge – if he were any more Grinch-like I’d be worried about Christmas. Ellen Page is his daughter Vanessa, a teenage Republican stalwart with an unfortunate desire to emulate her father. Shaking up their insular cocoon of self-righteous indignation is the arrival of love interest Sarah Jessica Parker (for Lawrence) and wayward uncle Thomas Hayden Church (for Vanessa).
What follows is certainly unpredictable, not exactly hilarious, and not always likeable. Every character comes equipped with an avalanche of flaws that make proceedings interesting, thought the film lacks a driving punch to give any of the events a real sense of direction. Instead we have half of the Seinfeld maxim – there’s no hugging, but there is growing. The conclusion is involving, but barely climactic, so instead of any kind of closure the final sensation is one of unevenness.
Quaid does great curmudgeon, and his character’s struggles beyond that are well expressed. Ellen Page is viciously amusing, always watchable, and by now a certified expert at playing teens with sass (who are capable of disturbing revenge on sexual predators, while falling into some sort of offbeat, unplanned pregnancy and equating her dead mother’s clothes to a tax break – it’s an everywoman sort of character really). Church is fun, though getting beyond his bizarre facial hair is difficult. Parker is a little miscast, she provides nuance but somehow her intelligent doctor fades a little.
Comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine and Juno may be a little mean. Its humour is much drier, its tone more biting than affectionate towards its characters. It is better likened to The Squid and the Whale, but that still managed to kick in with a sense of building crisis for Jeff Daniels’ ego-centric novelist. Overall Smart People is intriguing, but ultimately meanders into its own sauntering flatline. It runs out of puff. It’s a decent flick, but not one for the best of list.
Dennis Quaid stars as Lawrence, a widower and English professor in the grandest tradition of Ebenezer Scrooge – if he were any more Grinch-like I’d be worried about Christmas. Ellen Page is his daughter Vanessa, a teenage Republican stalwart with an unfortunate desire to emulate her father. Shaking up their insular cocoon of self-righteous indignation is the arrival of love interest Sarah Jessica Parker (for Lawrence) and wayward uncle Thomas Hayden Church (for Vanessa).
What follows is certainly unpredictable, not exactly hilarious, and not always likeable. Every character comes equipped with an avalanche of flaws that make proceedings interesting, thought the film lacks a driving punch to give any of the events a real sense of direction. Instead we have half of the Seinfeld maxim – there’s no hugging, but there is growing. The conclusion is involving, but barely climactic, so instead of any kind of closure the final sensation is one of unevenness.
Quaid does great curmudgeon, and his character’s struggles beyond that are well expressed. Ellen Page is viciously amusing, always watchable, and by now a certified expert at playing teens with sass (who are capable of disturbing revenge on sexual predators, while falling into some sort of offbeat, unplanned pregnancy and equating her dead mother’s clothes to a tax break – it’s an everywoman sort of character really). Church is fun, though getting beyond his bizarre facial hair is difficult. Parker is a little miscast, she provides nuance but somehow her intelligent doctor fades a little.
Comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine and Juno may be a little mean. Its humour is much drier, its tone more biting than affectionate towards its characters. It is better likened to The Squid and the Whale, but that still managed to kick in with a sense of building crisis for Jeff Daniels’ ego-centric novelist. Overall Smart People is intriguing, but ultimately meanders into its own sauntering flatline. It runs out of puff. It’s a decent flick, but not one for the best of list.
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