A droll comedy about a widowed English professor (Dennis Quaid), his hypercompetent Young Republican daughter (Ellen Page), and his underemployed adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church), Smart People lulls you with cliché—the professor is of the absentminded variety—and then sideswipes you with plot twists, sly jokes, and truly brilliant delivery. I'd quote an Ellen Page line about tax write-offs right here if it weren't utterly unfunny on paper. Smart People is just a funny, sturdy, touching movie about the way grief keeps on rippling. (See Movie Times.)