Director: Noam Murro
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.0
More accurately: Smart-ass People. Grouchy, conceited college professor (bearded and blazer'd Dennis Quaid) - who has an overachiever daughter (Ellen Page) and underachieving adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) - has his bad karma interfere with his life: he screws up his date with a doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker), can't get his book published, is hated by his students and peers. But he's really mad because his wife is dead: this is a movie about healing (italics required). And that healing comes, whether anyone can believe it or not - it's not due to Quaid's character's actions, but because things fall into place (according to the script): he runs into a streak of luck (the book gets published, Parker still likes him despite his repugnant personality) and we're to believe he's 'rediscovered' himself (which is unlikely). The most intricate relationship in the picture is the one between Page and Church, due mostly to Page's wounded cutie routine and Church's skill at making a slug a human being. Memo to Mr. Poirier: equating Young Republicans with the lonely and sexually repressed - even though it may be true - is still lazy.
