Making Mr. Right

Making Mr. Right
Making Mr. Right
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Susan Seidelman
Written by	Floyd Byars; Laurie Frank
Produced by	Joel Tuber
Starring	John Malkovich; Ann Magnuson;
Cinematography	Edward Lachman
Edited by	Andrew Mondshein
Music by	Chaz Jankel
Production; company	Barry & Enright Productions
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date	April 3, 1987;
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$1,584,970

Making Mr. Right is a 1987 American science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Susan Seidelman; starring John Malkovich as Jeff Peters/Ulysses and Ann Magnuson as Frankie Stone.^[1]^[2] It is a loose remake of the 1967 Soviet science fiction film His Name Was Robert.

This film is primarily about the misadventures between an android and a woman.

Plot

Jeff Peters (John Malkovich) is an emotionally repressed scientist who cannot stand others because of their intellectual inferiority. He dreams of deep space exploration, which would be difficult because of the lack of human contact for long periods of time. He develops the Ulysses android (which looks exactly like him) for the purpose of space exploration, since an android would not be affected by the isolation.

Frankie Stone (Ann Magnuson) is hired to do public relations for the project. She meets project manager Dr. Ramdas (Harsh Nayyar) and Jeff, who both give Frankie an overview of the Ulysses project. As a part of her job, she must get to know the android better, in order to "humanize" him for the benefit of the project's sponsors in Congress. However, in his interaction with her, the android develops emotions and develops better social skills than Jeff himself. At one point, the android impersonates Jeff in order to leave the laboratory, and stows away in Frankie's Chevrolet Corvair. After escaping, he encounters human society at a shopping mall, buys a tuxedo, goes on a date with a woman named Sandy McCleary (Laurie Metcalf) who thinks he is Jeff, reducing her to an emotional wreck, and then loses his head (literally) over Frankie's best friend Trish (Glenne Headly) who has taken refuge in Frankie's apartment after walking out on her husband who is a star on the popular daytime soap opera New Jersey.

Frankie also develops feelings for the android and befriends Jeff on a lesser level. Frankie's mother Estelle Stone, (Polly Bergen) learns from Frankie's ex-boyfriend's mother that Frankie has a doctor boyfriend (Jeff) and expects Frankie to bring him to the wedding of Frankie's sister Ivy Stone. Frankie persuades Jeff to come, but Ulysses again absconds from the lab and gate-crashes the wedding. Trish's jealous TV-star husband crashes the wedding as well and gets into a fight with Ulysses. Ulysses short-circuits and crashes into the swimming pool, turning the occasion into a public relations disaster. Frankie is fired from her job and forbidden contact with Ulysses or anyone on the project. She then uses her connections with a former client and boyfriend Steve Marcus, a candidate for Congress to attend Ulysses’ launch day in an attempt to say goodbye to Ulysses, but is rebuffed by Jeff and then forced to leave by Dr. Ramdas. Ulysses then gives his farewell speech, in which he bemoans humanity's difficulty in forming relationships, both platonic and romantic.

However, Ulysses appears at Frankie's front door during the launch; Jeff actually presented that final speech himself, having realized his creation has become more empathic than him. As the lack of human contact of a seven-year space mission will not be a hardship for him due to asociality, Jeff decided to go into space while the android takes his place on Earth so Ulysses and Frankie (who by now are deeply in love) can be together.

Cast

John Malkovich as Dr. Jeff Peters/Ulysses
Ann Magnuson as Frankie Stone
Glenne Headly as Trish
Ben Masters as Steve Marcus
Laurie Metcalf as Sandra "Sandy" McCleary
Polly Bergen as Estelle Stone
Harsh Nayyar as Dr. Ramdas
Hart Bochner as Don
Susan Berman as Ivy Stone
Polly Draper as Suzy Duncan
Christian Clemenson as Bruce
Merwin Goldsmith as Moe Glickstein

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, as it holds a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews.^[3]

Home media

Making Mr. Right was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003.

References

^ Denby, David (April 27, 1987). "Making Mr. Wrong". New York Magazine. 20 (17). New York Media: 125. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
^ Variety film review; 25 March 1987
^ "Making Mr. Right". Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

Making Mr. Right at IMDb
Making Mr. Right at Rotten Tomatoes
Making Mr. Right at Turner Classic Movies
Making Mr. Right at Box Office Mojo
Making Mr. Right at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

[1] Denby, David (April 27, 1987). "Making Mr. Wrong". New York Magazine. 20 (17). New York Media: 125. Retrieved 2009-06-23.

[2] Variety film review; 25 March 1987

[3] "Making Mr. Right". Rotten Tomatoes.

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