The comedic coming-of-age tale is a genre most often thought of in the same breath as teenage-centric John Hughes films.  In "Smart People," a coming-of-age tale for social-challenged adults, the genre gets a delectable update from the high school cafeteria to the mid-life crisis set as a self-absorbed academic genius goes into middle-aged crisis mode, gets his much-needed comeuppance and tries to find a place alongside all the dumb people. 

That might sound a bit harsh for a springtime offering, and the characters are not all that endearing, but that is the point of the film.  The title is ironic, get it?  It centers around the idea that intellectual and social intelligence do not go hand-in-hand and a lot of the pleasures come from seeing the so-called smart people of the title attempting to understand each other and falling on their faces.  The characters here are capable of change, but the thought hasn't occurred to them. All of them need a little push in the right direction.

It gets a lot of things right until it stumbles a bit in the home stretch, but it hits all the right notes and the laughs come tumbling out in all the right places. First-time director Noam Murro aims high and gets career-transforming performances from a terrific cast of actors in roles tailor-made for them.  This is a film that is so good and true-to-life that, in spite of its shortcomings, is the perfect antidote for those tired of the dumb comedies that seem to be populating theaters at the moment.

The first scenes occur on the college campus of Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh as burnt-out English professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) drags himself from class to class.  He is self-absorbed, demanding, contemptuous of his students, and uses the log-ago death of his spouse as a green light to be as miserable as possible.  There is an authentic feel to the college scenes that feel true not because it focuses on academics or student/teacher relationships, but because it captures the feeling that some professors remain trapped in a state of permanent college-age adolescence for decades. 

The household situation isn't much brighter.  There is the older college-aged son, a soon-to-be published poet, but since he hates his father and resents him for being a crap dad, the father/daughter relationship gets most of the attention.  The prof has turned his teenaged daughter (Ellen Page), a conceited, super-responsible Republican-in-training, into a miniature model of dad. "You're not happy either," she tells him in her most telling scene, "and you're my role model." There are some decided rough edges to her character that Mark Jude Poirier's script - and Page - aren't afraid to highlight.  She doesn't seem to mind her father's self-absorption though, and as she tells him at one point, "self-absorption is underrated."
 
The plot gets into high gear once the professor suffers a head trauma, the result of his pig-headed stubbornness, and he meets chief ER doctor Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student.  He has a telling fault of not remembering the names of his students and he doesn't remember her either.  It turns out Janet nursed a schoolgirl crush on him as a college freshman and all she got for her efforts is a disparaging comment on her paper. 

The introduction of Lawrence's adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church), the definition of turning freeloading into an art form, speeds things along as Church and Page start spending time together, much to her father's displeasure.  These are perhaps the best scenes in the film as he teaches her to be a real teenager and she gets a real friend for the first time.  The relationship becomes problematic once she gets an age-inappropriate crush, but it is the most true and affecting relationship in the entire film. 

The central romantic relationship doesn't ring as true, but the plot dictates it is up to Janet to help turn our anti-hero into a real human being.  The age difference isn't the problem, and though it is hard to accept that she could continue to be interested in the relationship after a horrible first date, the game actors fill in the gaps.

The reliable Quaid is an underused comic actor. Here he gets to dig into a real character, sporting an untrimmed beard and middle-aged paunch, in the sort of let-it-all-hang-out performance that actors relish since it often gets Oscars.  There is an understated comic flair to his performance, but he also gets a lot of help from his co-stars.  In a change-of-pace role, Parker gets to shed the glamour girl parts she is famous for. Though the part isn't as much of a stretch, it is the most appealing performance in the film.  There is an aching undercurrent of sadness to her acting that is added proof there are real acting chops behind the smile. 

Church supplies a lot of the R-rated humor and the comic situations are raised up a couple of notches each time he is onscreen.  He gets the best punchlines, and though he can do this sort of character in his sleep, there are enough original touches to hold our interest.

The preternatural Page is the real standout; it is her most accomplished performance to date.  It is another smart-mouthed teenaged role, and the comparisons to "Juno" are sure to come, but this is quite a different character.  It seems to be a one-dimensional act at first - the oddball genius - but Page brings all sorts of subtle nuances to the role that steers clear of the usual clichés.  There is real depth to her acting that is rare for a performer of her age and the potential to be one of the acting giants of her generation is clear in each of her scenes here.

I can't praise "Smart People" enough.  The criteria for a good film is one that creates an atmosphere for us to escape to for a couple of hours, and this one does that in spades.  It might not be as smart or profound as the dialogue seems to suggest at times, but it is one of the most hilarious, heartfelt and humane comedies to come along in a long time. 

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