MovieChat Forums > Smart Guy (1997) Discussion > Felt sorry for Marcus

Felt sorry for Marcus


Maybe I just liked Jason Weaver's acting, but Marcus really seemed to get the butt end of the show. Always the goofy dumb older brother making the wrong decisions, getting upstaged by his siblings, always cracked down on by his dad.

Something that I found annoying was the arrogant way that Floyd dismissed Marcus' real dreams of being a musician. Goes against a lot of what Floyd always told TJ.
And then there was that episode where Floyd wants to teach Marcus a lesson by having him work as a roofer, only to find that Marcus grows to enjoy it and make it his future. Then Floyd has his buddy tell Marcus a pack of lies about the roofer's life, which leads to Marcus deciding to go back to school, and then after he's gone are we, the audience, shown that Marcus could have had a perfectly decent life as a roofer (unless that in turn was another extreme exaggeration on roofers).

Maybe i'm looking too much into it, but I felt sorry for and sympathized with Marcus on those occasions. Of course, there were episodes where he does some mean stuff, but it seemed to me that he never got his due.

Plus I find it sad that Jason Weaver's career isn't as good as he deserves. His last hit was "Drumline" if I can recall right, and he only had a small role in that.

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[deleted]

He definitely was the butt of the joke in the family. I won't deny that. He reminds me of my brother, (sort of the black sheep, talented, had to/has to learn how to harness his talent etc, sorta looks like him too in a basic way), so I can sort of identify with that. I believe they even addressed that a couple of times. I also see where you're coming from with their father, though I think he mostly just wanted to ensure his children's future. It was a tough situation with Marcus because his father wanted him to be able to do as well as Yvette or TJ could do, potentially. The one thing Marcus did well (music) wasn't a sure deal. His father didn't want him to have to struggle, he felt if he put in more work, he could at least get a decent job to support himself. Maybe Mr. Henderson was afraid of him failing and having nothing to fall back on.

On the other hand I completely agree about Jason Weaver. He is so talented, he's stuck in these roles that practically anyone could do and he's a good actor. I'm even more saddened by the fact that his music career never really took off. His first album was very good, he should have gotten a good foot in the business with that but he didn't even get a second album, though he released a single or two after that I think. It just baffles me that after a while one or the other didn't take off, particularly as he reached adulthood. Interestingly enough, I read that he recently received his chef's license.







There is no "i" in tiem...oh wait.

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He felt as if he was living under his brother's shadow. Imagine how it must feel to have a little brother whose smarter than you!

Plus, TJ was jealous of him too. Marcus seemed like a popular kid and a star athlete. Tj was always the kid no one really wanted to hang out with, since he's way younger than the high schoolers.

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Seriously, you have no idea how much I agree with you here!
Yes, it is probably true that Floyd just wanted all of his three children to have a good future.
And to be fair to him, I have to say that he mostly was a good father otherwise.
But he was unable to see that some people aren't academically gifted.
Or that everybody should have the right to make their own choices.
So he would be unnecessarily hard on Marcus sometimes.
Then again, I believe that Floyd had to drop out of College and find a job when his wife was expecting Yvette.
That could be the real reason why he was obsessed with Marcus getting an education.
But still, he should have been satisfied with that TJ and Yvette were stellar students and let Marcus be himself!

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