James Hitchcock
I originally associated Fred Schepisi with true-life crime dramas like "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and "A Cry in the Dark", both set in his native Australia, but he is clearly a versatile director who has also turned his hand to comedy. "I.Q." has a lot in common with "Roxanne", probably Schepisi's best-known comic movie made several years earlier. Both films are romantic comedies based upon a love- triangle with two men in love with the same woman. In both films the woman is a highly-educated intellectual, and in both one of the men tries to impress her by pretending to be more intelligent or more educated than he really is. In "Roxanne" the woman is an astronomer; here she is a mathematician, but we learn that her father was an astronomer and the appearance of comet plays an important role in both films. The action takes place in New Jersey in the 1950s. If you want to be precise, both Dwight D. Eisenhower (as President) and Albert Einstein appear as characters, so the action must take place between Ike's inauguration in January 1953 and Einstein's death in April 1955, but as the film takes a number of liberties with historical fact that sort of precision is not really necessary. (For example, Einstein is seen listening to Little Richard's "Tutti-Frutti," which was not released until after his death). The heroine is Catherine Boyd, Albert Einstein's (fictional) niece, who has obviously inherited her famous uncle's brains as she is a brilliant mathematics student at Princeton University. Her two admirers are Ed Walters, a garage mechanic, and her British fiancé James Moreland, a university lecturer in experimental psychology. As is normal in two-boys-in-love-with-one-girl type rom-coms, the two have very different personalities. Although Ed has good general intelligence he has little formal education, but is amiable and caring. James is academically brilliant but a pompous stuffed shirt who treats Catherine with patronising condescension, believing that her main function in life will be as mother to the brilliant children to be fathered by himself. Catherine's uncle Albert realises that James, for all his academic prowess, is a complete prat, so tries to persuade her that Ed would be much better suited to her. To this end he and three friends, the scientists and mathematicians Nathan Liebknecht, Kurt Gödel and Boris Podolsky, come up with a scheme to convince Catherine (and the world) that Ed is a scientific genius. The weak link as far as the acting was concerned was, in my view, Tim Robbins as Ed; l felt that the role needed someone more relaxed, less serious and younger. (The age difference between Robbins and Meg Ryan is only three years, but here it seems much greater). According to Schepisi, Robbins was unhappy with the way his character was written, feeling that nobody would like a man "who has a woman fall in love with him because of a lie", and it seems as if some of this uneasiness comes across in his performance. (There is a difference in this respect between "IQ" and "Roxanne", where it is the unsympathetic, and ultimately unsuccessful, suitor, who pretends to a level of education which he does not possess). Ryan herself, however, makes a sweet and appealing heroine. In the nineties she (along with Julia Roberts) was Hollywood's official Queen of Romantic Comedy and here she achieves the feat (as did Daryl Hannah in "Roxanne") of playing a woman who is not only attractive but also educated and intelligent without resorting to that old "bespectacled bluestocking" cliché. Walter Matthau was one of those actors who never seemed to retire, or even to fade away, but carried on taking leading roles in major feature films throughout the eighth, and final, decade of his life. Perhaps his best-known role from this period was in "Grumpy Old Men", but his Albert Einstein, portrayed as loveably mischievous, kindly and fun-loving, is far from being a grumpy old man. His three colleagues are all played in much the same way, and as being around the same age as Einstein, although historically this is not accurate. (Kurt Gödel, for example, would only have been in his forties at the time the film is set; Lou Jacobi, who plays him here, was 81 when the film was made). I wouldn't rate "IQ" quite as highly as "Roxanne", one of the best romantic comedies of the eighties, although with a stronger male lead it might have fall into the same category. Steve Martin, the male lead in "Roxanne", is one of that film's great strengths, much better than Tim Robbins is here, although on the feminine side Meg Ryan is just as good as Daryl Hannah. Overall, however, "IQ" is a highly enjoyable comedy, warm and human with its central theme that life is as much about the heart as about the mind. 7/10
Lee Eisenberg
While Fred Schepisi's "I.Q." doesn't really have any important qualities, it's still worth seeing. Walter Matthau plays Albert Einstein, trying to help mechanic Ed Walters (Tim Robbins) fall in love with Princeton mathematics doctoral candidate Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan). Probably the funniest scene is when Dr. Frizzyhead and friends (Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joseph Maher) try to make Ed look like a scientist: he ends up looking like a French impressionist.Obviously little of the movie is historically accurate, but that's not the point. It's not intended as anything except a light comedy, quite the opposite of Robbins's most famous movie from 1994 (The Shawshank Redemption). A movie about Einstein's whole life would have to focus not only on his scientific achievements, but also his political activism, namely how he wrote a letter on behalf of the Scottsboro Nine and came out against nuclear weapons (it got to the point where the FBI kept a file on him).So anyway, this one is acceptable. Also starring Stephen Fry, Tony Shalhoub, Frank Whaley, Charles Durning and Keene Curtis.
RoseNylan
Director Fred Schepisi(Roxanne) directs this well intentioned, but inferior comedy about Albert Einstein(Matthau) trying to hook his scientific niece(Ryan) up with ordinary guy Tim Robbins in order to get her to relax and enjoy life in the 1950's. To get Ryan to like Robbins, Einstein tries to make Robbins look like a brilliant scientist. The idea is cute, but the film falls flat with corny situations and silly dialogue. Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and the terrific supporting cast do their best to keep this silly comedy afloat, but are unable to rescue the film. Its unfortunate that so much talent went into producing such a lackluster movie. I would not recommend to anybody unless they are huge fans of Meg Ryan.
