Smart People: Intellectual dramedy, good. Ellen Page, freaking awesome
Release date: 11 April 2008
By Jerilyn Covert
Sometimes the smartest people have the most to learn. So goes the tagline for the new comedy Smart People. But perhaps we should append “about themselves” to that line. Within the film’s opening sequence, we the viewers learn more about Lawrence Wetherhold than he knows–or, at least, would admit–about himself. Arrogant, stuffy, uptight, insecure, frustrated, contentious, self-involved and, most of all, sad, the curmudgeonly Carnegie Mellon professor is the type of man who wears corduroy blazers and pleated pants, who refuses to devote his precious time to help students after class, much less make an effort to get to know them or remember their names, who’s consumed by his latest book project, which has yet to impress a publisher. Wetherhold, played by a scruffy, pudgy Dennis Quaid, is as ignorant about proper social interaction as he is, apparently, of the fact that a tucked-in shirt does not a protruding belly flatter. Indeed, he may be bright in the world of theory, but when it comes to real life, he hasn’t got a clue. “Do you think I’m self absorbed?” he asks his high-school-aged daughter, played by the insanely brilliant Ellen Page. “I think self absorption is underrated,” she cleverly replies. If Juno McGuff had uttered this same dialogue, it would be perceived as sarcasm. As Vanessa Wetherhold, Page’s performance has all the well-timed comedic earmarks of a pastiche. Her character is both Vanessa, the overachieving young Republican and straight-A student, and, at the same time, the unknowing parody of herself. In fact, she or any of these characters could easily translate into reality–the commitment-phobic, work-focused doctor, the developmentally-stunted freeloading brother, the sexually-active liberal collegiate son. Let’s face it, we know them all. Hell, we are them all. Read the rest of this entry »
