Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
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.
I.Q. is a pleasant but lightweight romantic comedy elevated mainly by Walter Matthau's charming turn as Einstein and a whimsical premise. The plot is formulaic rom-com territory — mismatched lovers, a meddling but lovable mentor, predictable obstacles — that rarely surprises. Matthau and Tim Robbins provide warm performances but Meg Ryan is in familiar bubbly mode. The 1950s Princeton setting gives it some visual charm but the cinematography is functional rather than distinctive. The Einstein-as-matchmaker conceit gives it a degree of novelty, though it doesn't fully exploit its intellectual possibilities. The ending resolves exactly as expected, offering little emotional payoff beyond the genre's baseline.