Smart People (2008) - Movie Details

Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) might be imperiously brilliant, monumentally self-possessed and an intellectual giant – but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy. His teenaged daughter (Ellen Page) is an acid-tongued overachiever who follows all too closely in dad's misery-loving footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne'er-do-well brother (Thomas Haden Church) has perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can't seem to...

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Movie Review

Review by Robert Bell

Intelligence is often mistaken for discipline.  We, as a society, attribute intelligence to those in certain professions, like doctors and professors.  While this certainly makes the trait more explicitly identifiable and easily defined, it's overlooking a great deal of complexity surrounding emotional and cognitive intelligence.  In order to succeed in the world of academia, there is a natural acceptance of social signifiers and constructs.  There is a belief in the measure of worth by one's ability to succeed given pre-determined criteria.  The neuroses and naturally inquisitive nature of intelligence often conflicts with this structure as it is implicit and flawed.  This is why disciplined may be a more accurate way of describing those in challenging professions, as their roles in no way imply a natural human understanding beyond those of their peers.  It implies only that they excel at standardized testing, or come from a rich family.  Which is not to be dismissed at all, discipline is an enviable characteristic.  However, it is not intelligence.

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