The story follows the lives of a dysfunctional family that includes a widowed intelligent jackass Professor (Lawrence), a know-it-all daughter (Vanessa), a college student son (James), and the Professor’s lazy brother (Chuck). All of the family members are basically at a crossroads in life and they are trying to figure out what to do and where to go next.

Have you seen “Sideways,” the films of Wes Anderson and “Wonder Boys”? If so, you have no reason to see “Smart People” as it is basically a collection of themes and ideas from those films all rolled into one (minus the pleasant and memorable characters). It’s a real shame ‘Smart’ is a waste too as the movie contains a superb cast consisting of Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church and Dennis Quaid. The real standouts here are Church and Page. Even though Page plays an unlikeable snot here, it just goes to show how much range she has as her character here is vastly different from those seen in “Juno” and “Hard Candy.” As for Church, he is literally the only semi-likeable character here. True, he’s basically playing a variation of his character in “Sideways,” but he still livens up an otherwise dull and pretentious quirky dramedy.