Smart People

"You spend $50 on dinner, that's grounds for intercourse."

The world of academia is laden with irretrievably stupid hypocrites.

With a solid cast - Dennis Quad, Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page, and Sarah Jessica Parker - Smart People had some good hype. But, the movie fell very short in justifying the hype. It's going to be difficult for me to give a plot synopsis without giving too much information, but here it goes: Smart People follows a six month period in the life of Lawrence Weatherhold (Quaid), a tenured English professor at Carnegie Melon University, and his struggle to find his direction in life, which is interrupted by his adopted brother (Church), his academic-obsessed daughter (Page), and a doctor (Parker), who happens to be a former student that, like all of his students, he doesn't remember.
I usually like to elaborate a little bit on the blot, but, honestly, it is difficult. The plot didn't really have a direction, and it didn't seem like it came to a real conclusion. The film lacks character development; the characters for the most part change in the last few minutes of the film, but it is so abrupt and intentional that any intelligent mind wouldn't fall for it. None of the four main characters are the least bit likable; you leave the cinema with a bad taste in your mouth, and, believe me, it wasn't from the extra grease on the popcorn.
Now, one might try to tell me - Do any of the characters have to be likable to make a good film? The answer is, of course, no. Does the plot need direction and do the characters need development in order to make a good film? If there's no real universal theme that makes your mind ponder other things besides the real lack of anything in the film, then absolutely yes. The plot doesn't have anything to show us that most anyone can relate to. The only thing that this film solidified in me is my real distaste for English. The main character is exactly what you would expect from an English professor, not unlike Jeff Daniels's character in The Squid and the Whale.
What the film lacks in plot, substance, and direction, it makes up for in acting. The acting was very well done. I was afraid that I would only be able to envision Ellen Page as Juno, but as likable as Juno was, Vanessa Weatherhold was more or less despicable. However, as well as the actors tried to carry a film with no plot, no theme, no direction, and no character development, it was a failure from the start when the producers of the film decided to overdose on crack and make the screenplay into a film. Oh well, I guess not all drug binges are fun and dandy.
The movie fell short of every expectation, especially the one that we have with all films - tell us a story, dammit! For that, I give it a C-.