I.Q. *** (1994, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Joseph Maher, Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks, Stephen Fry) – Classic Movie Review 10,473

Ah, yes, with Albert Einstein as Cupid what could possibly go wrong?

Director Fred Schepisi’s 1994 romantic comedy film I.Q. stars Tim Robbins as garage mechanic Ed Walters, who tries to romance mathematician Catherine Boyd, the niece of the surprisingly fun-loving physicist Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau), with help from him and his mischievous scientist friends, Nathan Liebknecht (Joseph Maher), Kurt Gödel (Lou Jacobi), and Boris Podolsky (Gene Saks).

The problem is that, although Ed falls in love with Catherine at first sight when she comes into his garage, she does not reciprocate and she is already engaged to stuffy English psychology professor James Moreland (Stephen Fry).

Ed meets Einstein and his friends, who accept Ed as a friend, seeing him as someone who would be better suited for Catherine, so they try to help him look and sound like a scientist to gain her attention. Catherine has decided that she must marry an intellectual to produce genius children, like Einstein, but he realises that Ed loves Catherine for herself.

Andy Breckman comes up with a fresh and original story idea, Breckman and Michael Leeson write an amusing screenplay, and Schepisi handles it well, but it is mainly the appealing performers that make the film so pleasing.

The score is composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

The cast are Tim Robbins as Ed Walters, Meg Ryan as Catherine Boyd, Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein, Lou Jacobi as Kurt Gödel, Gene Saks as Boris Podolsky, Joseph Maher as Nathan Liebknecht, Stephen Fry as James Moreland, Daniel von Bargen as Secret Service Agent, Tony Shalhoub as Bob Rosetti, Frank Whaley as Frank, Charles Durning as Louis Bamberger, Keene Curtis as Dwight D Eisenhower, Alice Playten as Gretchen, and Greg Germann as Times reporter Bill Riley.

Schepisi recalled: ‘Tim Robbins was being difficult because he said in the Nineties nobody would like a character who has a woman fall in love with him because of a lie. That’s the whole premise of the film. He pulled the film this way, he pulled it that way while we were writing and it just felt messy.’

Don’t look to the film for facts – it’s a romcom! Einstein did not have a niece called Catherine Boyd, Kurt Gödel was shy and reclusive, Einstein’s friends were much younger than Einstein, Louis Bamberger died in 1944, and Little Richard’s Tutti-Fruitti was released in November 1955 after Einstein’s death in April 1955.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,473

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