Smart People is a blackly comic drama set in Pittsburgh, which focuses on widowed professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid), his study-mad daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page) and his student poet son James (Ashton Holmes).
Lawrence struggles to communicate with his family and his colleagues at the university where he teaches literature, even though his is a "smart person".
When his adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) moves in, the slacker brings some much needed warmth in to the family, which is further improved when Lawrence gets involved with another "smart person", Dr Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker).
All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and
Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in
What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.
Smart People
I had high hopes for
Smart People, mainly due to the stellar cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, and Dennis Quaid.
Smart People came out on Friday and seeing Sarah Jessica Parker on the big screen got me more than excited to see the new
Sex and the City movie. Now I could go on and on about her, but we're here to talk about Dennis Quaid! He's had a
rough few months, but luckily he was able to escape in his role in this much buzzed about movie.
Maybe it's that time of the year, or perhaps there was a strong nationwide desire to see a scary movie, but whatever the reason, horror flick
Prom Night was crowned queen at the box office this weekend. Variety reports that the movie's $22.7 million
marks the best opening for a horror picture so far this year, possibly due to the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.
Though
Street Kings is loaded with bloodshed and big names like Forest Whitaker and Keanu Reeves, it was still no match for the teen screamfest, earning second place with an estimated $12 million.
Smart People has a lot of good stuff going for it: a great cast (including Ellen Page in the follow-up to her star-making
Juno role), sharp and funny dialogue, and a studied look at familial dysfunction.
The movie takes place in a dreary Pittsburgh near the Carnegie Mellon campus and is centered around a family headed by a widowed professor given a name that could only go to a serious blow-hard: Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid). He is father to high school senior Vanessa (Page) and Carnegie Melon student/talented poet James.
Apr 1 2008 - 1:01am by
Molly
Surprisingly, Ellen Page was the girly looking one at last night's NYC premiere of
Smart People. Sarah Jessica Parker, on the other hand, went a little more rock star with her leggings, leopard print and hot pink. The cute little ladies' costars Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church were both on hand for the event.
The sunlight might be lasting longer and longer these days, but I'm still planning to spend time indoors at the movie theater this Spring. What is striking about the movies coming out this season is the variety: From quirky little indies that premiered at
Sundance to highly anticipated blockbusters, you can check out the movies I'm most excited to view in the coming months by pressing "Start."
Source
I have been sulking ever since I couldn't into the premiere of
Smart People at
Sundance. The cast is fantastic and the buzz surrounding it has been good. The family dramedy stars Dennis Quaid as an acerbic widowed professor with some sassy kids (including Vanessa, played by Ellen Page) whose life gets complicated when he falls in love with his former student (Sarah Jessica Parker), and his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) re-enters his life.
Jan 21 2008 - 11:31pm by
Molly
It was back to back nights of
Sundance premieres for the Sarah Jessica Parker/Matthew Broderick power couple with Sunday bringing out her Smart People and Sunday featuring his Diminished Capacity. Both actors were happy to accompany their other halves to the big premieres — awwww. While I've heard good things about SJP's project with Dennis Quaid and Thomas Haden Church, I was actually there to see Matthew's movie last night.
