i.q. movie review

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"I. Q." begins, like almost all romantic comedies, with a Meet Cute: A garage mechanic named Ed is thunderstruck with love at his first sight of a young woman. Alas, she has been driven into his garage by her fiance, a brilliant academic. Even more unfortunately, she thinks it is important to marry a genius, and although the mechanic may be smart, he doesn't have any intellectual credentials.

The woman, whose name is Catherine ( Meg Ryan ), has reason to want a genius for a husband: He will fit in better around the family dinner table, since she lives with her uncle, who is Albert Einstein ( Walter Matthau ). The mechanic is, so to speak, no Einstein. Played by Tim Robbins , he knows all there is to know about cars, however, and a great deal about human nature - enough to sense that he has a chance with her.

Human nature is allegedly the specialty of her fiance, who is played by the tall and deflatable British actor and author Stephen Fry . His entrance is behind the wheel of a little MG sports car; he's too large for it, so his head comes up above the windshield, and he looks like one of those cartoon men who drive little roadsters.

His idea of a honeymoon is a vacation in the Belgian Congo, among pygmies. Her idea is to make love under a waterfall in Hawaii that feels like a million kisses on her skin. You see what they're up against.

Matthau as Einstein is a stroke of casting genius. He looks uncannily like the great mathematician. Whether he acts like him I am not in a position to say, but he certainly doesn't act like himself: He has left all his Matthauisms behind, and created this performance from scratch, and it's one of the year's genuine comic gems. He deserves an Oscar nomination.

Einstein has three old mathematician buddies who all dote on his niece. They're played by the veteran character actors Lou Jacobi (who cried, "You cut the turkey without me!" in " Avalon "), Gene Saks and Joe Maher. They form sort of a chorus, giving Einstein someone to talk with as he wrestles with the challenge of his niece's future happiness. He is much perturbed. Admittedly, the Stephen Fry character is a genius. He is also so much less than that: a pompous twit, in fact. And the Tim Robbins character, grease-stained although he may be, is stalwart and true, ingenious and engaging.

The elderly brain trust conspires to make Robbins seem like a genius. They supply him with a fictitious identity and various brilliant-sounding discoveries, including, if I recall correctly, bright ideas for cold fusion. And then, at parties and in a lecture hall, they go through a hilarious repertory of secret signs, signals and twitches to prompt him with the correct answers.

Meg Ryan is one of the most radiant actresses now at work, and the charm she brings to "I.Q." reminded me of her work in "When Harry Met Sally . . ." and " Joe Versus the Volcano ." She projects a certain stubbornness, an unwillingness to be pushed, that makes her right for this role: Sure, she likes this big lunk at the garage, but that doesn't mean she has to marry him.

One of the charms of "I.Q." is that the young lovers conduct their courtship almost onstage; it's like an Elizabethan comedy, in the way that all the subsidiary characters observe everything and feel free to provide a running comedy. The old guys get a terrific act going, and so do the other guys down at the garage, and what everybody sees is that these two people are perfect for one another.

"I.Q." is a romantic comedy with its heart in the right place, and all of the other pieces distributed correctly, too.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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I.Q. (1994)

106 minutes

Meg Ryan as Catherine Boyd

Tim Robbins as Ed Walters

Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein

Lou Jacobi as Godel

Stephen Fry as James

Charles Durning as Louis Bamberger

Produced by

Directed by.

• Fred Schepisi

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Common sense media reviewers.

Breezy, quirky romcom is predictable but sweet.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Ultimately a celebration of love, friendship, and

Catherine is a smart female character who sometime

A man falls out of a tree (no injuries). Some fair

Kissing/embracing. Some innuendo (brief references

Infrequent use of words including "shut up,&q

Car brands are mentioned by men who work at a gara

Adult characters drink wine and beer with dinner a

Parents need to know that I.Q. is a cute, quirky 1950s-set romantic comedy starring Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and, as Albert Einstein, Walter Matthau. It's light and breezy, and there's hardly anything in the way of iffy content. You can expect a smattering of salty language ("shut up," &quot…

Positive Messages

Ultimately a celebration of love, friendship, and learning to think with your heart, the movie also deals quite a bit in deception and manipulation (albeit done with the best of intentions). But characters feel bad about deceiving others and eventually come clean.

Positive Role Models

Catherine is a smart female character who sometimes doubts her ability to achieve her own successes but is loved and supported by most of those around her. Ed is an unabashed romantic who's led somewhat astray in the pursuit of love, but he has positive intentions and never wants to hurt anyone. Einstein and his buddies are portrayed as a charmingly meddlesome quartet who doesn't hesitate to compromise their ethics if it will help a friend.

Violence & Scariness

A man falls out of a tree (no injuries). Some fairly reckless-looking motorcycle riding, without helmets (not required during the movie's time period). A couple wrestles on the ground; a woman slaps a man on the face. The subjects of a time-deprivation experiment are loudly agitated. Talk of attaching electrodes to experimental mice's genitals.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kissing/embracing. Some innuendo (brief references to "premature ignition" and "making love"). References to a natural phenomenon in Maui that feels like a million kisses on your skin and/or an enormous tongue licking your entire body. Catherine's fiance rebuffs her attempts to get physical during a dinner party. Some longing looks. A character is briefly referred to as "the chimp pimp." Atoms are described once as "sexy."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent use of words including "shut up," "hell," and "jeez." Barely heard use of "bitch." Some name-calling ("troglodyte," "idiot," "rat man") and crude references ("how are they hanging?"). One use of a derogatory term ("dago").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Car brands are mentioned by men who work at a garage. Vintage issues of magazines are shown.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adult characters drink wine and beer with dinner and toast with champagne at a reception.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that I.Q. is a cute, quirky 1950s-set romantic comedy starring Tim Robbins , Meg Ryan , and, as Albert Einstein, Walter Matthau . It's light and breezy, and there's hardly anything in the way of iffy content. You can expect a smattering of salty language ("shut up," "hell," and "jeez" are each said once), some kissing and embracing, and a bit of innuendo (a passing reference to "making love," a double-entendre joke about "premature ignition" in a car, and the like), but overall this is a tween-friendly story about learning to think with your heart as well as your head. Characters do deceive and manipulate others to achieve their ends, but their intentions are for the best, truth wins out in the end, and it's all quite lighthearted. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In 1950s Princeton, New Jersey, science-loving mechanic Ed Walters ( Tim Robbins ) falls in love at first sight with beautiful, brainy, sometimes bemused Catherine Boyd ( Meg Ryan ). He's star-struck when he finds out that Catherine is the niece of Albert Einstein ( Walter Matthau ), who takes an immediate shine to Ed and decides that the impulsive car expert would be a far better match for his niece than her current fiance, stuffy British psychologist James ( Stephen Fry ). With the help of his entourage of fellow big thinkers -- Kurt Gödel (Lou Jacobi), Boris Podolsky (Gene Saks), and Nathan Liebknecht (Joseph Maher) -- Einstein conspires to make Catherine think that Ed is a brilliant physicist who's worthy of her affection. But when their deception spirals out of control, will Ed lose his chance to win her heart?

Is It Any Good?

First things first -- this winning romantic comedy doesn't make any claims on historical accuracy. Einstein never had a niece named Catherine Boyd, and his fellow scientist friends were actually significantly younger than they're portrayed here. But so long as you're in the market for fun over facts, this cute, breezy romcom is quite entertaining. Einstein and his buddies are, frankly, adorable as mischievous meddlers who take as much joy in matchmaking as they do in debating whether time actually exists. And, as their ringleader, Matthau is the perfect mix of cuddliness and knowing humor; he makes it plausible that one of history's greatest minds might actually have called out "wahoo" during a motorcycle ride.

The quartet of elderly friends really is the best part of the movie. Ryan and Robbins are winning enough as Ed and Catherine, but neither role feels like a stretch for the stars; even back in 1994, when I.Q. was released, audiences had seen Ryan do her "quirky pixie" thing several times before, and Robbins has never been a stranger to loopy, dreamy characters. Still, their road to romance is sweet, charming, and -- although predictable -- always upbeat.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether the ends ever justify the means. Is it OK that Ed and Einstein deceive Catherine (and, by extension, the rest of the country) to make Ed more attractive to her? Is something that wouldn't be OK in real life acceptable in a movie? Why, or why not?

How accurately do you think I.Q. depicts Einstein's life and relationships? How could you find out more about this part of his life?

Can you choose whom you love? Parents, talk to your kids about your own values regarding love and relationships.

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 25, 1994
• On DVD or streaming : September 23, 2003
• Cast : Meg Ryan , Tim Robbins , Walter Matthau
• Director : Fred Schepisi
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Great Girl Role Models
• Run time : 100 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some mild language
• Last updated : May 13, 2024

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MOVIE REVIEW : ‘I.Q.’ Scores Most Points With Matthau’s Einstein

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“I.Q.” has one good idea: to cast Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein. Put a shuffling, German-accented Matthau in a sweat shirt, a silvery mustache and lion’s mane, and you’ve got an amusingly convincing take on the man who devised the theory of relativity. Matthau’s Einstein, however, dotes on a relative, his pretty mathematician niece Catherine (Meg Ryan), not relativity.

Alas, it’s writers Andy Breckman and Michael Leeson’s notion to have Einstein play matchmaker for Catherine. It’s the kind of news that automatically makes you wary, and “I.Q.” wastes no time in confirming your suspicion that we’re in for a lot of contrived foolishness.

It’s nice to see Matthau make Einstein a mensch, but it’s off-putting to watch him and his three elderly genius pals (Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joseph Maher) indulge in exceedingly elaborate ruses to steer Catherine away from an obtuse experimental psychologist (Stephen Fry, Peter in “Peter’s Friends”) and toward an ace Princeton auto mechanic (Tim Robbins).

Matthau himself takes a subtle, gentle nudging approach, but the script calls for him to indulge in major interference in his niece’s life and to perform acts of credibility-defying dishonesty, such as passing off Robbins as a scientific genius, not just to Catherine but to the entire world. (The script also requires him to come right out and say the deathless phrase, “Don’t let your brain get in the way of your heart,” and it could have emphasized a bit more that Einstein wants to prevent Catherine from making the mistakes he made.)

Breckman and Leeson are dexterous in plotting out a finish that’s clever scientifically, but they’ve not been able to banish the specter of predictability that hangs over the entire film.

The way the film, which tries hard to evoke ‘30s romantic screwball comedy, tells it, Robbins is a smart, likable guy for whom an encounter with Ryan really is love at first sight. Ryan, on the other hand, feels that she must make a “sensible” marriage--well, it is the ‘50s--while not completely acknowledging to herself just how intellectually daunted she is by her loving uncle, how obligated she feels to marry a genius.

Matthau has the best role, but Robbins and Ryan are finally simply too good for their material, which is not nearly inspired enough to do justice to their talent.

The same goes for director Fred Schepisi, who makes the most of each and every situation, but should be expending his efforts on a picture, whether comedy or drama, that’s more worthy of his proven gifts.

* MPAA rating: PG for some mild language. Times guidelines: It includes scenes of ethically dubious situations.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tim Robbins: Ed Walters Meg Ryan: Catherine Boyd Walter Matthau: Albert Einstein Stephen Fry: James Morland A Paramount Pictures presentation of a Sandollar production. Director Fred Schepisi. Producers Carol Baum, Schepisi. Executive producers Scott Rudin, Sandy Gallin. Screenplay by Andy Breckman, Michael Leeson; from a story by Breckman. Cinematographer Ian Baker. Editor Jill Bilcock. Costumes Ruth Myers. Music Jerry Goldsmith. Production designer Stuart Wurtzel. Art director Wray Steven Graham. Set decorator Gretchen Rau. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.

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Summary A mechanic romances the mathematician niece of physicist Albert Einstein, with help from Einstein and his friends.

Directed By : Fred Schepisi

Written By : Andy Breckman, Michael Leeson

Where to Watch

Tim Robbins

Catherine boyd, walter matthau, albert einstein, boris podolsky, joseph maher, nathan liebknecht, stephen fry, james moreland, tony shalhoub, bob rosetti, frank whaley, charles durning, louis bamberger, keene curtis, alice playten, helen hanft, roger berlind, arthur berwick, timothy jerome, john mcdonough, lewis j. stadlen, jeff brooks, critic reviews.

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I.Q. (1994)

Walter Matthau is Albert Einstein. That’s the conceit that differentiates I.Q. from countless other romantic comedies relying on the same standard formulas of mismatched lovers, meddlesome matchmakers, supposedly perfect but obviously inappropriate fiancés, and so on.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/spiritual value, age appropriateness, mpaa rating, caveat spectator.

Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins are cast somewhat against type: Ryan often plays bubbleheaded and Robbins brainy, but here Ryan is a science whiz, if a bubbly one, while Robbins is a grease monkey, if a thoughtful one. The real twist, though, is that Catherine (Ryan) happens to be the niece of Albert Einstein — and, while she has a brainy fiancé, he’s a twit, and her uncle Albert decides that she really needs someone like Ed.

This sort of thing has been done to death, but there’s something endearingly goofy about throwing Einstein, of all people, into the mix that breathes new life into the formula. Aiding and abetting are a grey-haired coterie of Einstein’s real-life scientific peers, Kurt G‶del, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Liebknecht, who mug about like the four widowers in (the superior) Return to Me .

The pseudo-scientific milieu, with much banter about the nonexistence of time, offers a new angle on the sense of inevitability and formula that invariably attends this sort of film. Despite its title, I.Q. isn’t the smartest romantic comedy ever made, but it won’t insult your intelligence either.

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By Anthony Lane

Half a great movie. For the first hour, Fred Schepisi’s 1994 comedy hits a high note of tolerant goofiness. Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein, Meg Ryan as the physicist’s niece, Stephen Fry as her intended, Tim Robbins as her grease-monkey love interest: with a cast like that, it’s not hard to keep the movie kicking along, and the blooming backdrop of nineteen-fifties Princeton adds to the sensation that these guys are living through an age of innocence and making the most of it. Schepisi fools around nicely with the contest between logic and love; Einstein and his cronies hatch a plan to bring Robbins and Ryan’s characters together, thus assisting an already benign universe. The jokes are never a blast; they feel subtle and syncopated, hitting you at quiet moments, staying away from the main rhythms of the plot—a wise move, because the plot (never strong to begin with) soon starts to crack. By the end, it’s in total collapse, and the good mood dissolves. (Streaming on Tubi, Google Play, and other services.)

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I.Q. Reviews

• 66   Metascore
• 1 hr 35 mins
• Drama, Comedy
• Watchlist Where to Watch

In the 1950s, a love-struck mechanic romances the highly intelligent niece of Albert Einstein by passing himself off as a physicist. He does so with the help of the father of modern physics himself, and his friends.

The attractive-sounding pairing of Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan fails to work the necessary magic in I.Q., a would-be fairy tale of theoretical physics and romantic chemistry in which a puckish Hollywood simulation of Albert Einstein plays matchmaker to the stars. This disappointing film was directed by Fred Schepisi, whose lighter-than-air confection ROXANNE (1987) was precisely the starry-eyed romantic farce that I.Q. tries, and fails, to be. In Princeton, NJ, sometime during the early 1950s, girl-next-door Catherine (Ryan) is the niece of Einstein (Walter Matthau) and a research scientist in her own right. She's engaged to the pompous James Moreland (Stephen Fry), an experimental psychologist at Princeton University. One day at a gas station, she meets pump jockey Edward Walters (Robbins), a closet inventor steeped in pulp science fiction and Popular Mechanics. Although he's unlettered and slightly goofy, Ed's intelligent enough to have conceived independently of cold fusion, which he sees as the linchpin to the development of nuclear-powered spacecraft. As Edward enters the orbit of Catherine and her eccentric family, Einstein and his sidekicks, absent-minded Professors Goedel (Lou Jacobi), Podolsky (Gene Saks), and Liebknecht (Joseph Mahler), realize that he's a better match for Catherine than the uncaring Moreland. Einstein resurrects an old paper on cold fusion and persuades Ed to masquerade as a physicist and present the paper as his own before an international symposium. The paper is a hit and Ed is pronounced a genius. In an attempt to discredit his rival, Moreland contrives a public test of Ed's IQ, but Ed scores a hefty 186 due to Einstein's secret coaching. Catherine declares her love for Ed soon after, while Moreland works overtime to prove him a fraud. But just when President Eisenhower visits the campus, hoping to enlist Ed in a project to build a cold-fusion rocket, Catherine discovers a flaw in the paper's calculations. Moreland confronts Ed at a press conference, declaring that his paper is a plagiarism of Einstein's unpublished early work. But Einstein himself saves the day by announcing that the paper, together with Catherine's criticisms, has enabled him to disprove Soviet claims of having developed cold-fusion on their own. In the end, Einstein and his buddies persuade the two lovers "never to let their brains interfere with their hearts." Opening with an instrumental version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on jazz violin, this pop fable promises to spoof all the right cultural landmarks, casting the century's greatest physicist as cuddly yenta and gently kidding the simultaneous cockeyed optimism and anti-Communist paranoia of the American 50s. But what should come off as fizzy soon goes flat, and everything seems to go wrong simultaneously. Increasingly desperate, I.Q.'s screenplay (unsuccessfully doctored by several Hollywood writers, including Nora Ephron) cannibalizes ROXANNE, rerunning scenes of star-crossed lovers mooning over the night sky, employing an impending comet as a major plot point, even corralling the central conceit of Cyrano, with Einstein ghost-writing Ed's love letters to Catherine. But the storybook magic that made the earlier film work so effortlessly is entirely absent here. Meg Ryan's cloying persona wears thin early on, while Matthau, one of the screen's masters of dyspepsia, is simply defeated by a part that is all sweetness and light.

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Directed by Fred Schepisi

With Einstein as Cupid, what could possibly go wrong?

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.

Tim Robbins Meg Ryan Walter Matthau Lou Jacobi Stephen Fry Joseph Maher Gene Saks Tony Shalhoub Frank Whaley Charles Durning Danny Zorn

Director Director

Fred Schepisi

Producers Producers

Carol Baum Fred Schepisi

Writers Writers

Andy Breckman Michael J. Leeson

Editor Editor

Jill Bilcock

Cinematography Cinematography

Executive producers exec. producers.

Sandy Gallin Scott Rudin

Stunts Stunts

Jennifer Lamb G. A. Aguilar Blaise Corrigan

Composer Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Paramount Sandollar Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

German English

Releases by Date

24 dec 1994, 25 dec 1994, 17 mar 1995, 17 feb 1996, 24 jan 1996, 06 nov 2003, 03 apr 2004, releases by country.

• Physical 15+
• Theatrical TP
• Theatrical 6

Netherlands

• Physical 6 DVD
• TV 6 Net 5

South Korea

• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical U
• Theatrical PG

100 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

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I.Q. Review

26 Jul 1995

A smart comedy about dumb love, this kooky romance runs low on scripted fizz but rejoices in delightful performances. Princeton mathematician Catherine (Ryan) is determined to breed offspring of superior genes, so she has affianced herself to pompous twit psychologist James (Stephen Fry, expert in his American debut) - the kind of annoying fiance who exists in such comedies solely to be got rid of. Enter romantic, good-hearted, red-blooded garage mechanic Ed (massively endearing Robbins), who falls in love with Catherine at first sight.

Catherine's uncle is Princeton's most revered citizen, Albert Einstein (Matthau) - yes, the E=mc2 dude - and he is enchanted by Ed, even if Catherine is not. Intrigued by the physics and metaphysics of sexual attraction, and eager to conduct an experiment, Einstein and a trio of scientific cronies (a wonderful old boys act from Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joseph Maher) set to work on Ed, coaching him in the dress and conversation appropriate to a genius.

The deception sparks off a series of increasingly ludicrous developments, which don't hold a particle of plausibility, and director Schepisi - not noted for comedy apart from Roxanne - has trouble sustaining the light material's momentum. The actors are so likeable, though, that they continue to conjure giggles and "ah"s right through to the amiably soppy conclusion.

A ChucksConnection Film Review

Tim robbins and lou jacobi wear black low cut converse “chuck taylor” all stars in the film., by hal peterson.

Albert Einstein wants his niece to have a true love relationship.

I.Q. is a pleasant romantic comedy with a twist — the uncle of the young woman the story is about is none other than the great genius Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau). Set in the late fifties, the story begins when Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan) and her fiancee James (Stephen Fry) experience car trouble while riding around in his MG, and seek assistance in a garage. The garage mechanic, Ed Walters (Tim Robbins), sees Catherine and falls hopelessly in love with her at first sight. Of course, Ed’s aspirations seem to be hopeless. James is a respected psychologist, Catherine is a gifted mathematician in her own right, and furthermore she feels that she needs to marry someone smart in order to maintain the family’s intellectual tradition. Ed is a very good car mechanic but has no formal college education. But in the spirit of all romantic comedies, Ed feels that the relationship has a chance if he can only meet her and spend some time with her. When she accidentally leaves her heirloom pocket watch at the gas station, he seizes the opportunity to try and see her again by personally returning the watch to the address on the work sheet. Imagine his surprise, when he knocks on the door and Albert Einstein answers.

Einstein and his scientist cronies conspire to get help Ed get hooked up with Catherine.

Surprisingly, Ed and Professor Einstein hit it off immediately. Ed is no scientific genius, but he understands human nature and the importance of having fun in life, two things that Einstein feels are lacking in his niece’s life, which has been largely based on trying to emulate her uncle. Einstein is getting on in years, and wants to make sure that she is happy and will be looked after properly. When Ed expresses the depth of his feeling, Einstein vows to help set things up. He introduces Ed to his mathematics cronies Nathan (Joseph Maher), Kurt (Lou Jacobi), and Ben (Gene Saks) who also dote on Catherine, dislike James’ pompous attitude, and are suspicious of his human and animal experiments in shock therapy. The five of them are soon conspiring to make Ed appear to be a young undiscovered genius in physics who has stumbled on the formula for cold fusion which will revolutionize space travel. As Ed is introduced to the scientific world, the four old men are hilarious in the clever ways in which they set him up, and provide him with the correct answers when challenged by James and other scientists. Unfortunately, their plan works too well. The media jumps on the idea of a common man as a major new scientific mind, a local industrialist (Charles Durning) is desperate to get hold of the formula, and President Eisenhower pays him a visit to announce that his research will put America ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race. Soon Ed and Catherine begin take each other seriously, but clouds appear on the horizon when the authenticity of the formula is challenged and eventually proven false by Catherine herself, and Ed realizes that he must level with her if they are ever to have a true relationship based on reality and trust. The clever and romantic ways that these issues are resolved by Einstein and his cronies, and by Ed and Catherine themselves make up the remainder of the story.

Ed climbs a tree to get various clubs and items thrown up there by the scientists.

The highlight of I.Q. has to be the performance of Walter Matthau as Einstein. He has created an original character here that seems totally different from the kind of roles he always played with Jack Lemmon. The plot turns on the clever and calculating plans of Einstein throughout the film, and it is nice to see genius acknowledged in this way. Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan are engaging as the young lovers and give us a good on screen chemistry, like they were meant for each other. Tim Robbins gives Ed a pleasant complexity of character, on one level the practical auto mechanic, average American good guy, and on another level a fun loving and entertaining person who likes to have a good time and could loosen Catherine up. He is intelligent, but not in an academic way. Meg Ryan also gives us an interesting character. In an era when women were usually not respected for academic credentials, she holds her own in the company of other academics, and continues to do her own research and investigation. Yet at the same time, she is starting to address her need to be fulfilled as a woman and have a good time in her relationships with men. There is a delightful caution in her relationship with Ed. She finds him attractive and likeable but that doesn’t mean she has to marry him. Because the romance that develops between Ed and Catherine is played out so much in the open, some of the secondary characters act like a Greek chorus, commenting on things as they are happening. The performances of Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joe Maher stand out in this regard, and even mention should be given to the guys at the gas station who perform the same function the mathematicians do but as average guys. While this film is by nature light and predictable, you will find it enjoyable entertainment.

Ed’s rival James does behavioral studies in his lab.

Best Chucks Scene

Catherine is astounded that her uncle wanted to ride on Ed’s motorcycle.

Both Ed and one of Einstein’s cronies, Nathan, wear chucks in this film. Ed wears black low cuts as leisure wear and the eccentric Nathan wears them also. (His appear gray in color, as though they were washed several times.) The best chucks scene is the motorcycle sequence when Albert Einstein asks Ed to give him a ride on his motorcycle. There are a couple of close up shots, and best of all everyone is having a good time. “Wahooo!!” as Einstein is heard to shout.

Ed revs up his motorcycle to take Albert Einstein for a ride around Princeton.

I.Q. (1994)

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I.Q. Parent Guide

I.Q. is a movie that puts the character of Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau) into a story involving his fictitious niece Catherine (Meg Ryan), and her desire to marry a slide rule professor.

Release date December 25, 1994

Run Time: 100 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

The idea of putting a real character into a fictitious situation usually doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like eating chocolate sauce with mashed potatoes—it looks like ice cream but isn’t really what you might expect. I.Q. is a movie that puts the character of Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau) into a story involving his fictitious niece Catherine (Meg Ryan), and her desire to marry a slide rule professor. Einstein has different ideas, and feels she is much more suited to an outgoing mechanic named Ed (Tim Robbins) that she happens to meet after her fiance’s car broke down.

Suddenly the mashed potatoes are starting to taste better. I.Q. is a warm and fun movie that has many humorous moments packed into a terrific performance by Matthau and the three other actors that play Einstein’s mathematician buddies. All four of the “boys” are soon convinced that they should do anything they can to bring Catherine and Ed together, but the problem is that Catherine wants to marry an academic, not a mechanic. So, the obvious solution is to make Ed into the man Catherine wants. This requires more than genius from Einstein and his friends, as they do their best to make Ed a convincing expert on cold fusion physics.

Overall, I.Q. is as unusual as Einstein: A funny movie with an intelligent script. I think I’ll have a second helping of those potatoes now…

About author

Rod Gustafson

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• Movie Mom Nell Minow Junk
• Common Sense Media Betsy Bozdech Breezy, quirky romcom is predictable but sweet.
• Film Freak Central Walter Chaw It's bad in the way, in fact, of a film that seems a lot like a good movie until you accidentally think about it for just one second.
• Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert I.Q. is a romantic comedy with its heart in the right place, and all of the other pieces distributed correctly, too.
• Decent Films Steven D. Greydanus Has been done to death, but there's something endearingly goofy about throwing Einstein, of all people, into the mix that breathes new life into the formula.
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‘Sight’ Review: An Eye Doctor’s (Inner) Journey From China

Based on the real life of the pioneering ophthalmologist Ming Wang, this movie follows the character’s struggle to see inside himself.

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By Glenn Kenny

Ming Wang, the real-life physician whose biography is the basis for this fictional feature, is a Nashville-based ophthalmologist whose degree in laser physics has presumably been a boon in his work restoring sight to visually impaired patients, many of whom are children.

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