I don’t usually write about films, mainly because most of them coming out nowadays are mind numbingly mainstream, boring and unintelligent. Lots of explosions, boobies, expletives and not a whole lot of story to go with it.
THIS; however, contrary to how the film poster looks, is intelligent and one of the few films I’ve watched that actually makes me work for an interpretation (ironic, seeing as the film ridicules “smart people”).
You may ask, with a poster that was this facetious (heh, that word is used in the movie), why did I decide to watch it? I had not seen a trailer, I had not read a review (in fact, after watching the movie then reading reviews about it, I probably wouldn’t have seen it if I had read a review first… Circles… Confusing…), in fact, I had never heard of this movie.
The reason? Pure boredom.
I had seen most of the other movies (which were generally, fairly mediocre, except Batman and Iron-Man, and that was only because they pulled on my nostalgia strings of yesteryear when I would wake up early in the mornings just to watch my favourite super heroes duke it out on early morning telly – that and the special effects blew my mind to the point where by the time I had got my bearings the movie had finished), and the movies I hadn’t seen all looked like… There was a reason why I hadn’t looked at them.
Having a look around at other reviews of this movie (it averaged 6.5 in IMDb) I believe they looked at it too superficially.. Like seriously, the only thing they could comment on was witty humor – which is a stereotypical judgement on the same level as saying McDonald’s is tasty but wrong for you. I’d like to say to all of you that regularly say, “oooh! That’s witty!”:
1. Shut up about it
2. It doesn’t make you seem smarter or more British in any way
3. Saying, “oooh! That’s witty!” Just sounds like you don’t actually understand it, but it seems “quaint” and, hence, MUST be mildly amusing.
OR! They wanted it to be something else… Critics Rant wanted it to be darker (god! Seriously… You’re an idiot, that’s not an objective view on something, that’s just having a tantrum about how every film doesn’t conform to your expectation… That sir! Is hegemony. And hegemony is boring!), Jim Emerson from Chicago Sun-Times wanted the characters to be more obvious (go grow a brain, what do you want them to do? Start telling you what they’re doing and thinking… That’s for the masses… It’s like me telling you when I pee! Has comedic value but it’s so very veryvery low humor)
AND! Stop comparing everything to everything else and observe the film by itself! Stop comparing this to the Royal Tenenbaums… That was a million times more wacky – I really don’t think wacky is supposed to come into this film… SO WHY ARE YOU EXPECTING IT!!!
Most professional critics are idiots anyway. They’ve seen too many films and have too narrow an expectation to be reliable. When their expectations aren’t met they have a hissy fit and go back to praising useless piles of moronic garbage such as ratatouille.
I found “Smart People” not to be amusing (for the most part). It was intelligent, but not so shallow as to be “witty”. It was entertaining but, in no way, spoon fed me the plot. It powerfully explored deep seated social anxieties without the overtness of the “OMFG MUM’S A DRUG ADDICT, DAD’S IN PRISON AND THE DAUGHTER IS FUCKED IN THE HEAD” syndrome most of these “family anxiety” films exhibit.
The one thing I loved about this movie was that everything was subtle, the viewer has to concentrate on the expression of the actors to really get what’s going on. It is amazing the buildup of tension in this film, without it having explained to the viewer, for example, when Dennis Quaid’s character, Lawrence Wetherhold is dating Sarah Jessica Parker’s character (I never really cared for her acting until this film, always seemed one-dimensional), Janet Hartigan.
In one scene when they are playing scrabble (apparently, the quintessential game for intelligentsia… hmmmm…) I noticed a couple of things; she tosses a microwaved meal to him while he is talking to his daughter (played by Ellen Page, again, awesome performance – <3 her sense of sarcasm) a look of discontent flashes across her face that is jarring within the scene. Somethings going on here… When he hangs up on her dejected daughter and starts playing with the scrabble set by himself, you realise – he just lost both women… Powerful, but not a word of dialogue.
One of the greatest achievements of this film is that it constantly discards dialogue. The dialogue is often used purely as background noise (in fact, it’s so heavy and academic, it’s difficult to comprehend). When Quaid’s character starts chattering, you realize, it’s not because he has something meaningful to say, he just loves the sound of his voice.
The film shows how intelligent people can also be unhappy with their lives, but there “infinite wisdom” creates an ego that stops them from realizing the root of their unhappiness – at least I think that is what the film is trying to say. Like a playing card once said (I’m not saying where from, it’s really geeky) “The educated mind is heavy with lore and knowledge. It is also the most likely to collapse under its own weight.”
This is a film I highly recommend for people who like thinking (ironically…) about the film they are watching. It’s an intelligent, powerful and emotive look at a dysfunctional family “unit”, without all of the stereotypical drugs, rape and violence in most other films that look at family dysfunction. It purely looks at the people.
P.S. See what I did thar? Hehehe, revealed none of the story! Meh, the story is a bit too “convenient-like” to be engaging – lots a little sub-plots and the viewer’s attention is spread too thin. The beauty of this movie is in the acting itself!
Edit: Post #20 Yay!
But that is OK! Because there is always a new place to start and it will give me a chance to get out of my rut. Been too long at the same place.
