I.Q.
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 5.9
Date Released: 12/25/94 Running Length: 1:37 Rated: PG (Nothing offensive)
Starring: Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins, Walter Matthau, Joe Maher, Lou Jacobi,
Gene Saks
Director: Fred Schepisi
Producers: Carol Baum and Fred Schepisi
Screenplay: Andy Breckman and Michael Leeson
Cinematography: Ian Baker
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Released by Paramount Pictures
With its goofy premise, charming stars, and inoffensive humor, I.Q. is likely to delight those who frequent movie theaters in search of romantic comedies. Anyone who wants a little more from a film won't find it here, however. I.Q. is inappropriately titled--cute and lighthearted it may be, but it definitely isn't clever or intelligent.
The storyline--which features Walter Matthau's Einstein playing cupid to two mismatched younger people (Meg Ryan as Albert's brainy niece and Tim Robbins as an auto mechanic)--is best when relegated to the background. Through the first hour, I.Q. is pleasant, carried by the chemistry of its leads. Ryan, with her wide-eyed gaze and characteristic head tilt, and Robbins, with his Jimmy Stewart-like, low-key style, work well together. It's only in the movie's final third, when an increasingly absurd and disjointed plot surfaces, that the screen presence of the pair is no longer sufficient.
Matthau is okay as Einstein, fitting most people's preconception of a doddering genius. Joining Albert are three other well-known elderly personalities: Godel (Lou Jacobi), Liebknecht (Joe Maher), and Podolsky (Gene Saks). Altogether, these intellectual giants act much like the Four Stooges, and are responsible for a fair share of I.Q.'s comedy.
The film starts out with Ryan's Catherine Boyd engaged to the snobbish and fun-hating James Morland (Stephen Fry, of PETER'S FRIENDS and TV's "Jeeves and Wooster" and "Blackadder"). Enter Ed Walters (Robbins), who knows all about distributor caps, but little about quantum mechanics or higher mathematics. Once Catherine and Ed exchange glances and trade tongue-tied sentences, we know poor James is on his way out. Fortunately, Fry plays his charge as such a stuffed shirt that we don't care.
Einstein decides that the only way for Ed to win Catherine is to act like a lot smarter than he is. This leads to the film's funniest lowbrow scene--a multiple choice intelligence test with the four old men finding a way for Ed to cheat--but it also devolves proceedings to a sit-com level.
Technical inaccuracies and anachronisms abound, some of which are a little too obvious to miss. How much these annoy the individual viewer will likely depend on how spellbound he or she is by the film's dubious web of magical romance.
Towards the end of the film, Einstein advises Catherine, "Keep your sense of wonder" and "Don't let your brain interfere with your heart." Those, apparently, are mottoes director Fred Schepisi hopes his audience will bear in mind when watching I.Q. The reason is obvious: thinking is not the way to get the most out of this uneven picture.
The above represents the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of Bellcore or any organization within Bellcore.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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