Buy it... only if you're attempting to complete a Jerry Goldsmith collection, because as cute and affable as this comedy score is, there's not much substance outside of a high profile melodic adaptation and some catchy 50's-style rhythms.

Avoid it... if you cringe at the prospect of hearing Goldsmith rely upon "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" as the primary thematic identity for this film (and break no new ground in other parts).

Goldsmith

I.Q.: (Jerry Goldsmith) When Albert Einstein instructs the audience not to let its brain interfere with its heart, a red flag has to be raised. The 1994 Fred Schepisi comedy I.Q. has two concurrent storylines, one that is standard romance material and another than never realizes its potential in terms of intellectual humor. Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins are the unlikely couple destined for love in the story, prodded along in their predictably affable roles by Walter Matthau playing the part of Einstein (Ryan's character's uncle). He engineers the romantic narrative of I.Q. while also bantering back and forth with three of his intellectual counterparts, a sub-plot with more potential than Schepisi realized. Received with faint praise outside of those who are suckers for the silliest of films in the romantic comedy genre, I.Q. is generally remembered for its mediocre screenplay, the result of significant editing by writers throughout the production. Making a memorable impact on the film is its music, partly because Einstein plays Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the violin in the story. Also at the forefront is a cute and undemanding score by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. The five collaborations between Goldsmith and Schepisi began with The Russia House in 1990, and for that achievement alone, the two men have to be forgiven for the four relatively poor or unremarkable scores to result from the two thereafter (Mr. Baseball, Six Degrees of Separation, I.Q., and Fierce Creatures). It could be argued that I.Q. is the most interesting of those four scores, though given its extremely light demeanor and slight footprint in the composer's career, that isn't saying much. Of more consequence for collectors of Goldsmith's music is the fact that I.Q. had long remained the only score written by the composer over the last two decades of his career that had never received any formal album release. Running under 40 minutes, Goldsmith's recording for I.Q. is all humor and little substance, and with the disappearance of the film from the collective memory, it was not surprising to see this rare void in the availability of his music. That said, however, I.Q. is a better score than many of the ridiculous comedy works he produced in the 1990's (and even psychotic bewilderments like Link), so it wasn't a surprise when La-La Land Records finally pressed a limited presentation of the featherweight score to CD in 2009 (along with Goldsmith's challenging music for the 1966 psychological drama Seconds, an extremely awkward pairing to say the least).

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As mentioned by a few irritated critics of the film in initial reviews, Goldsmith adapts "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" into a substantial portion of his score, stating it fully several times and using fragments of the well known piece throughout the rest of the work. A related theme consistently represents Einstein, twisting the Mozart progression slightly though still retaining enough of the famous melody to function. This idea mingles with two other thematic identities in the picture, the first being an extremely light-hearted 1950's jingle with saxophone and "doo-wop" vocals from a small female chorus. This generic but lovable rhythm serves underneath the primary theme on high strings and solo brass for Einstein in five or so cues. As the narrative progresses, Goldsmith extends a love theme very stereotypical to this period in his career, a pretty but largely nondescript piece that ranges from standard string performances to more contemporary tones on keyboards. The score maintains a fine balance between the fluffy style of its innocent 50's character and the utter ridiculousness of the violin performances of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" that will, for some listeners, prove to be too cute to handle. The highlights of the score are, not surprisingly, the 50's light rock imitations from Goldsmith, incorporating progressions similar to Henry Mancini's slightly later "Baby Elephant Walk" with great affection. Although the score features about ten combined minutes of this flashy 50's material and ensemble explorations of the love theme, the filler music in I.Q. is otherwise somewhat anonymous. This majority maintains the same attitude as the highlights, but regurgitates them with minimal development. Meandering, pleasant tones for electric organ, pop percussion, and ambient strings form inconsequential cues that often run for short durations. A few source-like light band cues are provided by Goldsmith as well. The listening experience as a whole will be one of amusement for Goldsmith collectors, though a fair amount of redundant material outside of the Mozart adaptations and 50's rhythms might result in infrequent revisits. The first available album of the score started circulating on the collector's market in the form of an early 2000's bootleg. This 29-track CD with 37 minutes of score-only material offered no cue titles and minimal packaging, though it did feature dynamic and clear sound quality (without a large ensemble for the performance, the scope of the recording was already a tad limited). The 2009 La-La Land album, limited to 3,000 copies, condensed I.Q. into cleaner tracks, though only a marginal amount of additional music is presented and the sound quality is not noticeably improved over the widespread bootlegs. Either way, it's an undeniably likable score, but don't go overboard trying to find it. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 113 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.32 (in 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.