 |
| |
 |
Smart People
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page,
Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed by: Naom Murro
Produced
by:
Bridget Johnson, Michael Costigan, Bruna Papandrea, Michael London
Written
by: Mark Poirier
Distributor: Miramax Films |
|
| |
 |
 |
The rising popularity of the independent film has done a whole
lot of good for the cause of providing thoughtful alternatives
to mainstream cinema, but it has also taken its toll on the
indie filmmaker’s sense of creativity. Instead of looking for
new ways to invent, mold, and rework the conventions of the
medium of film as we know it—this is the whole purpose of
working without a studio, it seems to me—a growing percentage of
independent writers and directors have begun to copy the
practices of the studio-system by regurgitating the plots and
characters of popular indies that have come before. Case in
point is Smart People, a movie that desperately wants to
be like Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways but
doesn’t have half of the brains of either film. Yes, Smart
People makes some attempts to mock the success of those
pictures by creating a dysfunctional family-based story and
employing a cast of actors who boast big names but are fond of
tackling small projects—Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah
Jessica Parker, and Ellen Page—but it fails on nearly every
count. The characterizations found in Smart People are
muddled and the dialogue isn’t particularly special. In fact,
many of the film’s story threads seem to have been made
intentionally vague simply because they could then later be
deemed “edgy” or “up for interpretation” by amateur critics
whose comments could in turn appear on promotional materials. In
fact, the only real remnant of good to be found in the picture
is Page’s performance, which does back-flips around the work of
the rest of the cast-members, who appear to be sleepwalking
through their roles for most of the duration. One thing’s for
sure: Smart People is nowhere near as intelligent as its
title would like to suggest.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 4.14.2007
Screened on:
4.13.2007 at the UltraStar Flower
Hill 4 in Del Mar, CA.
Smart People is rated R and runs 95
minutes.
Back to Home |
|
 |
|
|
|
