I.Q was the Big Bang Theory of the 1990's. This romantic comedy directed by Fred Schepisi is a very charming film. The film is about friendly garage mechanic, Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) who is trying to impress a smart Princeton University mathematician, Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan) by acting a newly discovery genius with some help with Catherine's Uncle, Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau) and his buddies, fellow scientists Nathan Liebknecht (Joseph Maher), Kurt Gödel (Lou Jacobi), and Boris Podolsky (Gene Saks). The casting for Albert Einstein's friends almost were originally going to be Peter Ustinov, Barry Humphries and John Cleese. No matter who was cast, they see Edward as someone who would be better suited for Catherine, rather than her stiff and fussy English fiancé, experimental psychology professor James Moreland (Stephen Fry). Things get heat up, when the science community heard about this 'wunderkind' genius work on Cold Fusion power rockets, and seek Edward to help the American take back, the space race from the Russians. I have to say, everybody is just charming. Tim Robbins is a fine actor who is believable, but he was a bit difficult during filming I heard. He said in the '90s 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. In my opinion, I didn't mind it, but I think Tim Robbins was right, because not a lot of people end up going to see this movie. Meg Ryan is a hot smart woman who looks wonderful in the poodle skirts. She looks really young in this role. Stephen Fry was pretty good, and at less, the filmmakers didn't make his character too unlikable. Last, I have to say Walter Matthau fit the part. He did a great job to the point that it seem like Albert Einstein was playing himself. For dramatic reasons, I.Q. fictionalizes the lives of certain real people. Albert Einstein did not have a niece by the name of Catherine Boyd. Kurt Gödel was famously shy and reclusive, so he probably wouldn't be hanging out with Einstein and Boris Podolsky. I like how the movie didn't play it safe, by over explaining the calculations of the physics theories. If you don't get the jokes. It's alright. I didn't get some of the things, they were saying, too. Plus, I study physics before, coming into this film. I love to do my research, and I think I learn a lot from this film. I never heard of Hamiltonians, iambic pentameter, zeno paradox and others. The odd humor might leave some people scratching their heads, but overall, most of it was pretty simple to understand. The comedy works as well. I love the debate scene about if time exist or not. The whole I.Q test was funny, but a bit unrealistic. The Spike Jones music scene was pretty odd. The Marlon Brando impression was great. By the way, people, the impression was from 1953's Wild Ones and 1954's On the Waterfront, not 1972's the Godfather. I love the movie soundtrack very much from Jerry Goldsmith. The violin melody of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star was amazing to hear. Other songs heard was the Alphabet song, and some classical music from Wolfgang Mozart, and Joseph Haydn. Some critics didn't find the movie great, because Einstein in their eyes seem too silly or dumb. I doubt Einstein was such a hard head scientist. Einstein reportedly was playful and fond of jokes that could be seen by some as childish, but in the movie, he was indeed sound smart with all the terminology. I love how they got away with the PG rating with all the sexual innuendos, down speaks, and euphemism. There was a lot of dark humor as well like example, the man stuck in a box without a sense of time. Minus, the historic accuracies, this film is fun to watch. This romantic comedy is full of wahoo!
