I must begin my admitting that I have found all of Payne's movies to be quite entertaining; he writes a lot of heart into all of his characters. Few of them fit the typical Hollywood cookie cutter mold. While it may not be as side splittingly funny as "Election" or "Sideways" it is a rather accurate depiction of campus life, viewed not from the student's standpoint from from the slightly over the hill professors.
Dennis Quaid's character is either a rip off or homage (depending on whether you like the director) of the Michael Douglas character in Curtis Hanson's "Wonder Boys" but that type of person is so rarely given the screen treatment that it is far from redundant. Having spent a year at Grad school I can attest to the accuracy of the post graduate environment. Instructors like these are wondering around schools all over America and more often then not they make a positive contribution to the lives of their students. The other thing that the show has going for it is that there are at least four well developed characters that grow and develop over the course of the film. As a viewer, you could do a lot worse than "Smart People."
Dennis Quaid's character is either a rip off or homage (depending on whether you like the director) of the Michael Douglas character in Curtis Hanson's "Wonder Boys" but that type of person is so rarely given the screen treatment that it is far from redundant. Having spent a year at Grad school I can attest to the accuracy of the post graduate environment. Instructors like these are wondering around schools all over America and more often then not they make a positive contribution to the lives of their students. The other thing that the show has going for it is that there are at least four well developed characters that grow and develop over the course of the film. As a viewer, you could do a lot worse than "Smart People."