My roommate and I are from Pittsburgh and we heard about this new movie filmed at home. So we entered the "Nostalgia Zone" and went to see it.
I totally underestimated how good this movie was going to be. I've always been a fan of Dennis Quaid but this could be the first time I could see his range. I was used to him as the pretty, but intelligent guy who gets into scrapes and charms his way out. But this movie made him stretch, out of typecasting and into a character you can really feel. It was brilliant.
Dennis plays a doddering professor at Carnegie Mellon (Go Tartans!) whose life is turned upside down by love. And just talking with a friend today, I know more of what that means. The "what the fuck just happened, I'm so smitten, I don't know my name but I like where this is going" feeling which frankly, I haven't ever allowed myself to have. The reasons why are for another blog and you didn't come here just to talk about me anyway.
So Dennis really makes you cheer him on in this movie and not in a underdog sort of way. You know what I mean, the "poor guy, let him win this one time" way. You see the entire arc of how an odious sort of dude turns into a likeable guy through the armor of love that he lets down his guard long enough to put on.
Really, really great. Thomas Hayden Church was great, despite my predisposition to grumble when he's in a movie, due to the over-hype that was Sideways. That movie made me want my money back and you really have to fuck up to do that, as I'm a pretty amiable movie-goer. By the way, other movies in that category are There Will Be Blood and Lord of the Rings. I was only slightly miffed at No Country for Old Men cause I caught it second run and paid $3 for it. At full price? Fury, for sure.
But to sum up, go see Smart People. It's up against Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which has a huge PR juggernaut behind it and is being heralded as the funniest movie ever. I shall be the judge of that. But Smart People earns your entrance fee plus some and that's enough for me.