Smart People

Lawrence Wetherhold is a literature professor at Georgetown University who is brilliant and self-assured in his academic life but has little to show for it in his relationships. A widower, he has grown distant from his children, a son studying at the same university and a fiercely clever teenage daughter, and his students and colleagues regard him with little warmth. When he begins a relationship with Janet Hartigan, a doctor who was once his student, and his adopted brother Chuck arrives needing a place to stay, the household he has kept so tightly ordered is thrown into disarray, and Lawrence has to reckon with the family he has neglected.

Smart People was released in 2008 and runs 95 minutes. It was directed by Noam Murro as the first of the two films he has directed to date, from a screenplay by Mark Poirier, and produced by Michael London, Michael Costigan and Bruna Papandrea. Dennis Quaid leads as Lawrence, with Sarah Jessica Parker as Janet, Thomas Haden Church as Chuck, Elliot Page as Vanessa, Ashton Holmes as James and Christine Lahti as Nancy, among a credited cast of 25.

Made for about 7 million dollars, the film took roughly 12 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from around 24,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 5.8 out of 10 from about 295 votes; critics rated it 5.7 out of 10 across 151 reviews, close to both audience scores.