Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Smart People

(2008)

Dennis Quaid is a college professor mourning the death of his wife, and just going though the motions of teaching. He has a fuckup adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) who shows up looking for a place to stay. He has a super-smart daughter (Ellen Page) who is not so much worried about doing well on the SATs, as fearful that she will not ace them, two perfect 800s. Quaid begins a relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker, M.D., and screws it up. He tries again. Is there hope …?

I was fairly bored by a lot of this. Dennis Quaid can’t seem to find a handle on the part, which I didn’t think was very well written, anyway. But what saves it is Church and Page. Church is amazing, his character much smarter in some ways than the professor-brother. And what can I say about Ellen Page? She electrified me the first time I saw her, in Hard Candy, and I look forward to all her future projects.