Smart People

By Robbie Collin

INDIE films can be just as formulaic as yer slashers and romcoms.

It's just normally, they're better at disguising it. Smart People isn't.

Because not only does it lift the storylines and characters from other films.

It lifts the blimmin' actors and all.

So we've got Ellen Page from Juno. Playing Juno again (except not pregnant).

From Sideways, that loveable waster who likes a tipple, Thomas Haden Church. Playing a loveable waster, who likes a tipple.

And Dennis Quaid. Sadly not reprising his tender, understated and little-seen performance as the shark hunter in Jaws 3D.

Quaid's a widowed prof whose relationships with his adopted brother (Sir Haden of Churchshire) and smart-a**e daughter (Ellen Page) have gone down the gurgler.

The love of a good woman—Sarah Jessica Parker—teaches him how to be nice again.

The indie vibe is sledgehammered home with rainy outdoor shots, awkward family meals and the regulation brown jumpers the cast are dressed in.

It's perfectly OK, thanks only to the Page-Church dream team. But if anyone remembers this a week past Wednesday, I'll eat my endearingly moth-eaten cardigan.