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'Smart People'

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BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

April 11, 2008

It's hard to say just how Dennis Quaid manages to make Lawrence Wetherhold, the sour, self-centered professor at the heart of "Smart People," anything close to likable. Wetherhold is not one of those stock Hollywood curmudgeons with gruff charm and a gooey center. He has no charm; he has no goo. Yet, Quaid finds what is funny and endearing and worthy in the character, and his performance holds this fine, if somewhat fragile, film together.

Best remembered for playing handsome hotshots in films like "The Big Easy" and "The Right Stuff," Quaid, who turned 54 this week, here trudges around with a flabby gut, an ugly beard and a pinched face that bespeaks constipation of the soul. Wetherhold has lost his wife, his passion for teaching English at Carnegie Mellon and even his concern for his family. What he holds onto is his superior intelligence, which he wields like a Taser against anyone within reach.

His college-age son, James (Ashton Holmes, "A History of Violence"), simmers with resentments of his own, but it's Wetherhold's teenage daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page, "Juno"), who's in trouble:

She's turning out like her dad. They're a family in need of rescue, which arrives in two human forms. One is Wetherhold's adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), an overgrown slacker looking for a place to crash. The other is Dr. Janet Hartigan ( Sarah Jessica Parker), who treats Wetherhold for a concussion and ends up salving his emotional wounds as well.

Written by Mark Poirer, a novelist and first-time screenwriter, "Smart People" feels like literature rather than cinema, focusing on emotions and relationships instead of plot. Noam Murro, directing his first feature film, concentrates on faces, voices and words. Nearly every scene contains a memorable moment, many between the snarky Page and the implacable Church, who make an oddly effective comic team.

Scene by scene, "Smart People" consciously avoids cliches, but it misses one biggie: Dr. Hartigan, the young hottie who seems more like an older man's fantasy than an actual person. (Parker, to her credit, nearly saves the character.) And James, the son, is a throwaway who clutters the story. But "Smart People" never insults your intelligence. Like its central character, it has high standards.

SMART PEOPLE (R). Dennis Quaid makes an early Oscar bid as an aging professor in this nuanced comedy-drama about family, romance and second chances. 1:33 (language, adult situations). At area theaters.

POP MUSIC QUIZ

Who's responsible for the gentle pop tunes that decorate "Smart People"? John Mayer? Sondre Lerche? Nope - it's Nuno Bettencourt, guitarist for the Boston hard-rock band Extreme. Other composers include that band's singer, Gary Cherone (briefly in Van Halen), and INXS keyboardist Andrew Ferriss.

IF YOU LOVE SARAH JESSICA PARKER ...

Check out "Square Pegs," the short-lived 1982 sitcom that first brought Parker to our attention. The geeky high-school show, a cult TV classic, comes to DVD on May 20. All 20 episodes will be on a three-disc set ($29.95), which includes a new interview with Parker.