"Smart People" is not particularly smart. Or funny. Or terribly moving.

Shot and set in Pittsburgh, the dramedy stars Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker and Juno herself, Ellen Page, without the striped top, jeans, hoodie and pregnant pause. Instead of playing an expectant 16-year-old, she's a friendless overachiever whose senior year revolves around Young Republicans, model U.N. and National Honor Society.

"Smart People" is indeed filled with smart people who, for much of the movie, don't have a clue about friendships, family, love, truth and second chances. Their Christmas dinner table is a particularly cheerless affair, with insults, sniping and passive-aggressive behavior in the form of an overloaded dinner plate.

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'Smart People'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church.
• Rating: R for language, brief teen drug and alcohol use, and for some sexuality.
• Web site: smartpeople-themovie.com

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The head of the household is widowed English professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Quaid), who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. He has a pathological inability to remember students' names or to engage them in class. He still is mourning his wife, cannot get his book published and is about to be passed over for department chairman.

Lawrence shares his house with his daughter, Vanessa (Page), while his aloof, angry son (Ashton Holmes) lives in a CMU dorm. The Wetherhold house gains a guest when Lawrence's adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), shows up looking for a place to crash. Normally the "adopted" would be extraneous, but someone uses that fact to excuse some inexcusable behavior.

Chuck, despite being a freeloader and sharing some beer with his underage niece, is the nicest, happiest one of the bunch. But even he has to escape from the house, a luxury not granted the rest of us.

Lawrence tries to wade back into the dating pool with an ER doc and former student, Janet (Parker). But his skills as a suitor are rusty, to say the least, and "Smart People" tracks their courtship, its effect on Vanessa and the rising and falling fortunes in the family.

"Smart People" marks the screenwriting debut of Mark Poirier, author of the novels "Goats" and "Modern Ranch Living," and the feature film directing debut of Noam Murro.

Poirier has attended and taught writing at Bennington College and Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities, and he has a solid handle on campus life but his footing is unsure in the personal scenes. Murro is an award-winning director of commercials, but he, too, seems lost in this longer form that suffers from periodic stagnant passages and pacing.

On the plus side, Quaid packed on 25 pounds and looks like the emotional zombie that he is at the movie's start. Parker's physician is woefully underdeveloped, as is James' character, but Church is a welcome addition to any scene.

Page's Vanessa projects a brainy bluster that cannot conceal her vulnerability. She's a "good girl" who retreats into her role of keeping the household running smoothly, whether that means making meals or doing laundry.

"Smart People," which will tickle Pittsburghers who recognize the CMU tennis courts or the Omni William Penn, isn't as smart or engaging as I had hoped. Like Quaid's professor who wants to upgrade the paper he originally assigned a C, I just can't give it more stars.