Smart People

Somebody should have told screenwriter Mark Poirier that it’s oxymoronic to trumpet a Republican character as a "smart" person in this well-acted but underwhelming comedy. Dennis Quaid plays Lawrence Wetherhold, a disaffected and widowed English professor living in Pittsburgh with his rightwing teen-aged daughter Vanessa (played with confident aplomb by the ever-watchable Ellen Page). Lawrence is looking for a publisher for his latest book, entitled "You Can’t Read," when his good-for-nothing adopted brother Chuck (played by Thomas Haden Church) shows up out of the blue for an extended round of couch surfing. An accidental head injury brings Lawrence face to face with emergency room doctor Janet Hartigan (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student with just enough of a lingering crush for the two misfits to start dating. Thomas Haden Church steals every scene he’s in, in this post-midlife-crisis coming of age movie that carries its emotional baggage like a badge.

Rated R. 111 mins. (C+) (Two Stars)