Just because your English professor is brilliant, experiencing majestically unreachable heights of intellectual prowess and seemingly perpetually unaffected by the day-to-day simplicities, does not mean he is not sometimes vulnerable, confused and lonely.

In the Noam Murro-directed comedy “Smart People,” opening Friday, April 11, it is Dennis Quaid who portrays the inscrutable Professor Lawrence Wetherhold, a man whose ability to connect with his inner world and with others appears to have wilted with the death of his wife.

His great retreat from the confusing feelings life tends to bring along is considering himself smarter than anyone else. He teaches Victorian literature at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, to students that he believes are not worthy of his fine knowledge.

He is also father to Vanessa (Ellen Page), an overachieving acidic high school senior who follows her dad’s example at being accomplished, acting older than she really is and never quite allowing herself to taste life. Son James (Ashton Holmes) is a student at the college and an aspiring poet who has distanced himself from his know-it-all father.

Lawrence’s haughtiness begins to waiver though when two unexpected characters firmly step in his life.

He meets Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the emergency room; she’s a former student of his who is willing to rekindle her flame and help him light his.

Then there’s his bohemian adoptive brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), who shows up at his house – and is in no hurry to leave. Chuck apparently has no intention to act his age and is keen to share his own wisdom hen it comes to ways in which one can actually life.

Slowly but surely, Lawrence begins to stir in his petrified preservation and dare to care once more.

“Smart People” opens Friday nationwide. Rated R. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Released by Miramax Films.

Directed by Noam Murro; written by Mark Jude Poirier.

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes, David Denman and Camille Mana.