Smarter than your average romantic comedy it may be, but this family-dysfunction indie is playing it a bit safe. What it does have going for it is some brilliantly waspish dialogue written by the novelist Mark Poirier, who clearly has an ear for the competitive and sometimes cruel banter in academic families. Dennis Quaid is a crabby English professor who can only get his books published by becoming the literary world equivalent of a shock jock (You Can't Read! is his latest). Ellen Page, doing a young Republican take on her role in Juno, is his overachieving teenage daughter. What a shame it never quite gives into its juicy streak of misanthropy. Instead, enter Sarah Jessica Parker as the little miss sunshine who will soften Quaid's edges. Quite what she sees in the supercilious windbag, who knows? As so often in romcoms, it doesn't matter how dusty, weird or socially unacceptable the man, that he is a man is reason enough to hang in there.