I.Q. is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Fred Schepisi and starring Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The film, set in the mid-1950s, centers on a mechanic and a Princeton doctoral candidate who fall in love, thanks to the candidate's uncle, Albert Einstein.
Plot
Princeton University mathematics doctoral candidate Catherine Boyd and her hyper-critical English fiancé, experimental psychology professor James Moreland, enter a nearby garage after their car breaks down. Ed, the science-fiction hobbyist mechanic, falls in love with Catherine at first sight and is blatantly enthralled by her, which she pointedly ignores.
Inside the garage, Ed excitedly tells his fellow mechanics that he envisions their future together, their marriage and kids. Catherine comes in, and unconsciously jumbles up her words, but he understands her perfectly.
Finding a watch Catherine left accidentally, Ed goes to her address, coming face to face with Albert Einstein, Catherine's uncle. Albert and his mischievous friends, scientists Nathan Liebknecht, Kurt Gödel, and Boris Podolsky, accept Ed as a friend after he answers a philosophical question on time and retrieves one of their badminton rackets.
Ed tells them when he and Catherine met, everything slowed down and he had a moment of clarity. The scientists see him as someone better suited for her. Ed takes Einstein to the university on his motorcycle to find Catherine. Although unsuccessful in getting a date with her, he makes her laugh.
At a university dinner, James and Catherine show their differing views. He describes an academic, and intellectual experience for their honeymoon. In contrast, she describes a sensual one in Maui. James pulls her aside, berating her, so she accuses him of not loving her. Then Catherine gets home and tells Albert James' plans for them: He'll be a full professor at Stanford, while she is a homemaker and full-time mother.
The four scientists get Ed's garage to transform their car into a convertible, brainstorming about how Ed can pique Catherine's interest. He jokingly asks to "borrow their brains", inspiring them to give him a makeover. Catherine finds Ed apparently discussing his idea of a nuclear fusion space shuttle engine with them. She talks him into presenting its paper at a symposium at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study.
Initially, they get away with it. At a reception afterwards, the scientists get Catherine and Ed together alone under the stars. When James arrives, Albert feigns a swoon. Insisting Catherine and Ed drive him home for his pills, he 'finds them' in his pocket. The three stop at a café to get out of the rain. When Catherine suddenly wants to go when she feels Ed's feelings for her, Albert distracts her. Playing a waltz on the jukebox, he then has Ed cut in. They suddenly leave when she remembers James is expecting her.
James challenges Ed in front of the press to do a very public set of intelligence tests. After solving the puzzles quickly, the scientists aid him with the 50 questions, so he's given a 186 I.Q. They've made it on the cinema's newsreel, pleasing Catherine. However, going over Ed's calculations, she sees something off and approaches her uncle. Albert causes her to doubt herself, as he fears Ed will be found out. When Catherine leaves distraught, Ed insists that she's more intelligent than she believes.
Uncle Albert arranges a small sailing excursion with him, Catherine, Ed and James, but the scientists delay James. Albert sneakily knocks her off balance so she falls into Ed's lap. Catherine finally says she loves him, and they kiss.
Back at the garage, Ed admits he hasn't told Catherine the truth. Simultaneously, she figures it out. President Eisenhower turns up, pleased with the supposed nuclear fusion engine. Catching up with the presidential motorcade, Ed meets Catherine in a field. She chews him out, but as they believe he's proposing, she says to kiss. He tells her she'd also fallen in love with him at first sight but needed the ruse. Catherine openly slaps him and returns to the motorcade.
Realising she's found out, Albert announces Catherine has finally seen through the "intellectual Ed" ruse. He congratulates her on mathematically disproving his theory of 30 years ago, something he couldn't do as he's terrible at math.
At the symposium, after James has blatantly accused Einstein and Walters of fraud, Albert turns the tables on him. He says 'Operation Red Cabbage' was their plan to prove the Russians were lying about advances in space, and Ms. Boyd and Mr. Walters were key in it.