Smart People
Miramax Films | Release Date: April 11, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A sharp, superbly acted character-driven comedic drama. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Page and Church work so brilliantly together as a comic team that it's worth enduring the leads' utter lack of chemistry together - not to mention the fact they're both wildly miscast. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Smart People, unlike "Sideways" or "The Savages," has a plot that's a little too rote. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
After its rough opening, Smart People settles down to be a funny, wryly enjoyable, effortlessly poignant parable of family life and a splendid showcase for its cast -- especially Page, who handily steals the movie and proves that her "Juno" success was no fluke. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Poirer and director Noam Murro have trouble bringing this to a satisfying climax, but the characters are credible and sharply observed and all four actors go to town. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
It's the kind of observational comedy, that'll be hard to find come summertime and should be enjoyed while there's still a chance. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
These small-scale, intelligent movies can fall into a trap: it’s hard to achieve a satisfactory dramatic climax when observation is your principal dramatic mode. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Poirier is a master at dialogue. His script crackles with sharp lines and he gives all his scenes a splendid comic undertow. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The great virtue of Smart People, attributable to Noam Murro’s easygoing direction as well as to Mr. Poirier’s wandering screenplay, lies in its general preference for small insights over grand revelations. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
There's nothing world shattering about Smart People. No one is ever going to call it a "must see" movie. But it is a trim, intelligent, reasonably amusing little movie. Call it a "could see." Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A good deal of the freshness comes from a grand, clownish slob played by Thomas Haden Church -- he's actually the smartest person of the piece -- while Dennis Quaid occupies the center with a mastery that's all the more notable for its humanity. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A third of the way through Smart People, I channeled Randy Newman's "Short People" and thought, "Smart people got no reason to live." Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
There much more roiling beneath the surface of these characters and it's a shame we don't come to understand them better. Smart people, dumb choices: it's true for both the characters and the filmmakers. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Dennis Quaid could stand in for Jeff Daniels' similarly toxic snob in "The Squid And The Whale," if only he were a little smarter and a little better-dressed. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The main problem with Smart People is that it never breaks new ground. This is territory we have seen tilled to better effect by more perceptive motion pictures. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though it features witty dialogue and good performances, the plot contrivances keep it from being an altogether winning enterprise. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
As tough as Lawrence is to like, Smart People is even harder to hate, mainly because of the sharply observed script by novelist Mark Jude Poirier. Just when you're losing patience with the movie, it sneaks up on you with a poignant detail or a character-defining turn of phrase. Read full review
60
Film ThreatZack Haddad
It is just too bad that this film isn’t as snarky and groundbreaking as it would like you to think it is. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis Harvey
Dysfunctional family seriocomedy is well cast, but characters and conflicts lack the sharper definition of similar recent exercises like "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Upside of Anger" and Noah Baumbach's films. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
The ensemble can't bring enough, though, to overcome the unoriginal setup and predictable story arc. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Mostly, Smart People is a failure of imagination. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Quaid and Church are funny, but too much of this film is not half as smart as it thinks it is. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Smart People tastes as fake as a Wal-Mart corn dog. Besides, it doesn't even know the work is Faerie Queen, not ''Fairie.'' Somewhere, Edmund Spenser is turning in his grave. You don't even have to be smart to know that. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Fine actors do their damnedest to make this dumb movie look sharp. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The movie gets bogged down in the formula conventions of romantic comedy, and in the process, it loses all honesty. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The middling romantic comedy Smart People, which centers on a hyperintellectual dysfunctional family, is of interest chiefly for the first post-Juno role of Ellen Page. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Church is most at home in his character’s skin; aside from the game but strident Quaid, all the leading players are ideally cast. It’s the script that isn’t ideally cast. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It's impossible to tell whether the film's ending is happy because it's happy or because it's ending. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Quaid doesn't have much to work with, and so deflects the portrayal away from the mind toward the body – consistently giving the coot a hunched, pigeon-toed gait. Nice try, but that bird won't fly. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
In what world does Smart People exist? Clearly not the real one, though this dramedy wants to think it's filled with ironic insights about love and family. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'Hara
Strong performances and a few laughs, but the story feels lazy next to superior efforts recently in the same genre. Read full review
40
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
It's like the entire season of a sitcom whittled down to a single episode. There's no time for characterization, no room for emotion, no interest in anything other than moving the story forward. It's all action, no reaction. One minute they're miserable; 90 minutes later, aww better. Read full review
38
PremiereRyan Stewart
Dennis Quaid is mostly lost at sea as Lawrence Wetherhold, the Carnegie Mellon lit professor; he apparently saw fit to tinker with his performance as filming went along, greeting us in some scenes as a noticeably swishy highbrow, while at other moments he's channeling the smiling, drunken menace of Nicholson's Jack Torrance. Read full review
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