I.Q.

Albert Einstein helps a young man who’s in love with Einstein’s niece to catch her attention by pretending temporarily to be a great physicist.

• Director:Fred Schepisi
• Genre:Comedy | Romance

Cast

Tim Robbins : Ed Walters
Meg Ryan : Catherine Boyd
Walter Matthau : Albert Einstein
Lou Jacobi : Kurt Gödel
Gene Saks : Boris Podolsky

Tim Robbins is an amiable garage mechanic named Ed Walters who finds Meg Ryan’s character, Catherine Boyd, a beautiful and intelligent Princeton University mathematics doctoral candidate, as she comes into the garage (accompanied by her stiff and fussy English fiancé, an experimental psychology professor, played by Stephen Fry). There is an immediate connection, but she refuses to acknowledge it. Finding a watch she left at the garage, Ed travels to her address and finds himself face to face with Albert Einstein (played by Walter Matthau), who is Catherine’s uncle. Albert, portrayed as a fun loving genius along with his mischievous friends Nathan, Kurt, and Boris, sees in Ed someone who would be better suited for Catherine, and the four of them attempt to help Ed look and sound more like a scientist (i.e., a wunderkind in physics), while at the same time trying to convince Catherine that life is not all about the mind but about the heart as well. This is intended to be Einstein’s most enduring legacy to his niece as he realizes that he’ll not be available for her for very much longer. Catherine eventually sees through the ruse but ends up falling for Ed anyway. The very last image in the movie is of a smiling Albert Einstein using a small telescope to spy on the two young moonstruck lovers as they take delight in each other’s company. Read more

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