Carnegie Mellon English Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a miserable widower English Professor at Carnegie Mellon. His son Jame (Ashton Holmes) goes to the college. His daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page) is an overachieving Republican high school student. His car gets impounded and he gets injured trying to climb the fence. His ER doctor Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) used to be his student. She reports his head injury to the DMV and he can't drive for six months. His slacker adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) needs a place to stay and Lawrence needs somebody to drive him. Lawrence is not happy about it.

The father is utterly miserable. The rom-com with Janet is tiring. The romance is awkward at best with very limited comedy. I really can't see the chemistry. Ellen Page tries to inject a bit of fun along with Thomas Haden Church. At least, they are funny and not quite so bitter. They make this watchable.

The anti-social and bitter widower Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is an egocentric and pompous man that is unpopular among his students and colleagues, and model for his teenager daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page),who is lonely and outcast in her school. His son James (Ashton Holmes) studies in the same college where he teaches and has little communication with his father. Lawrence is unsuccessfully trying to publish a provocative book and is disputing the position of Head of English Department, while Vanessa has applied to Stanford. When Lawrence has a serious concussion followed by seizure jumping a fence in a silly accident, Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) does not allow him to drive for six months. Lawrence does not recognize Janet, who was his student and had a crush on him. Lawrence hires his unemployed stepbrother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) as his driver and he moves to Lawrence's house. Further, Lawrence dates Janet but he has not dated any woman since the death of his wife, and his dinner completely fails. However, Janet and Chuck change the behavior of Lawrence and he discovers that even smart people need to learn and move on.

The dramatic "Smart People" is a nice romance with realistic characters and sitcoms. The viewer that watches this movie expecting a silly comedy or a conventional romantic comedy misguided by the trailer may be disappointed with the witty lines related to relationship, instead of empty jokes. Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church and Sarah Jessica Parker are perfectly cast for their roles and their performances of human characters are fantastic. Wait for the credits to see pictures with the conclusion of the story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vivendo e Aprendendo" ("Living and Learning")

A sideways look at at household of smart people and you come away thinking that they also have dysfunctional lives.

Dennis Quaid is Doctor Wetherhold a misanthropic literature professor at a Pittsburgh University.

He loves literature but has lost his passion teaching it and lost his passion in writing. Maybe because he is so up himself that no one reaches his high standard apart from his robotic, young Republican daughter who is friendless.

His son who shows gift as a writer has little to do with him and Wetherhold has been living a lonely life since his wife died and would be regarded as a social misfit.

When he suffers a fall Wetherhold is treated in ER by a former student (Sarah Jessica Parker) and he takes his first tentative steps to reacquaint himself with life out there.

When his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) turns up who is a bit of a waster, he ends up chauffeuring Wetherhold around and loosens up his daughter by introducing her to drink and drugs but she has a crush on him.

The film is a melodrama with some humour provided mainly by Church. Its an independent film taking a sideways look at an intellectual family who are a little in the deep end. Church plays someone who is a little bit too much like his character in Sideways and both him and Quaid have some bad facial hair. They should had grown real moustaches or beards.