Making Mr. Right

Making Mr. Right is one of director Susan Seidleman's funniest movies, perhaps even funnier than Desperately Seeking Susan. Plus, I love Seidleman's style, with such goofy situations always set in beautiful atmospheres with bright, art deco settings and neo/retro (60s with an 80s modification) wardrobe for both female and male characters. They were part of what made her movies so interesting.

Once again, Seidleman has directed another great romantic comedy with a terrific cast. Ann Magnuson is Frankie Stone, a woman who works in high class advertising. She has taken on a new project to help find the proper advertising angle for a new creation that is going to change the future--an android named Ullyseus (Malkovich), designed by a seriously detached scientist named Jeff Peters (also Malkovich). A scientist and an identical, eager android is already destined for great laughs as the situations lead to a few wild misunderstandings.

To Peter's dismay, Stone's quality time with Ullyseus (so she can figure out a successful advertising campaign) starts to make the android more human. And, ironically, he gains more human emotion than his identical creator, Jeff Peters, who gradually sinks into something more like an emotionless, android state. But Ullyseus wants to know what true love is all about (and Stone wants to know if such a thing is even possible).

It is a sweet movie, as Seidleman's movie often are, mostly because all the actors (and their respective characters) work so well together. In particular, this is a great demonstration of Malkovich's talents. It is one of the few comedies I have seen him in. And, it's fantastic to seem his try to act like an android acting like a human. Also, Laurie Metcalf (who was in Desperately Seeking Susan), as usual, is one of the funniest characters in the whole movie (just wait till you watch the scene with her and Ullyseus at the mall). It is a great romantic comedy, and one that I think 80s fans are sure to enjoy. Plus, Chaz Jenkel (who did some of the music for 'Real Genius') adds some great synthesizer/bongo drums music for this movie.

The two stars of the film are John Malkovich and Ann Magnuson. John Malkovich is now renowned as a consummate actor, and in this film he has a tour de force in a dual role playing Dr. Jeff Peters, an all-serious engineer/scientist and the look-alike android he created for a one-person multi-year deep space mission which the characters believe would be too lonely for a human to endure.

Unfortunately, Ann Magnuson did not enjoy similar success as a film actress following this part. I found that surprising because she was truly excellent as Frankie Stone, a respected publicist hired to convince the government to provide funds for continuation of Dr. Peters' deep space project. Frankie's approach is to make the android (named Ulysses) more engaging and interesting to the general public during interviews. That is, to make it more human-like. Magnuson, a red-head, was around 30 years old when the film was made, and I thought at times that I was watching a 30 year old Shirley MacLaine.

The style of the film as a whole seemed to me to belong to an earlier time in the film industry, more like 1950s era romantic comedies. I checked to see if the film had been made earlier and not released until 1987, but found nothing to indicate that. Perhaps I'm just not remembering that time period accurately.

This is a fantastic film, it really is. The director took a risk in casting a relatively unknown actress (Magnuson) in a lead role, but that risk paid off - she turned in a faultless, feisty performance, and I really believed that she was a top notch confidant businesswoman whose love life was a mess. John Malkovich is equally good, and it is so nice to see him cast against type and doing comedy for a change - and two roles to boot - which he manages very well. A far cry from "Dangerous Liaisons", Malkovich works hard to give the android depth and character, when Ulysses could have easily become so two-dimensional. Instead we have the pleasure of watching him grow and gradually develop the emotions and human characteristics that we take for granted, so that if you rewind and watch how Ulysses was at the beginning, he will seem completely different. Equally, Dr Peters, though arrogant and dispassionate, does evoke some sympathy and compassion with the audience. In an ironic turn, watch how machinelike Jeff seems in comparison to Ulysses towards the end, you will be surprised!

Brilliant! The scene at the wedding when Ulysses tells Frankie he loves her was perfect and particularly moving.

A sweet romantic comedy, that has an interesting twist. A image consultant named Frankie Stone(Ann Magnuson) who just dumped her philandering congressman boyfriend(Ben Masters). Is asked to help an android named Ulysses(John Malkovich), to help polish his social graces, before he is unvaled to the public. Much of the dismay of his of his creator Dr. Jeff Peters(Also John Malkovich). A good romantic comedy of it's time. Ann Magnuson is great. John Malkovich is terrific in duel roles has the sweet and sincere android Ulysses, and has the uptight and cynical Dr. Jeff Peters. A great movie to rent for your date.

As a tremendous fan of movies, I have yet to see many directed by women. Rarely are they publicized, and rarely are they seen, for many reasons. This movie, Making Mr. Right, is one of the great films of the late twentieth century.

It is a film fraught with ironies and humor, and told from the perspective of a busy working woman, who is in the midst of making her life and keeping up relationships. Her life is changed when she is forced to train an android to learn some people skills.

The movie brings up all kinds of social questions – it feels largely told from a anthropologist's view – a perspective that is completely devoid of the subject at work. This is certainly very interesting, and becomes very engaging when it is forced to look at the way people interact and why.

There are the obvious questions – like can machines think? These conspicuous ones are less interesting to the audience since they are an old hat, something already presented to us by science fiction writers of the 60s and 70s.

The cinematography or other technical elements are nothing to rave about. You don't watch it for the special effects, obviously. John Malkovich puts on a startling real act of a machine, as well as the maddened scientist who cannot interact with the real world.

RATING: 8/10

"One day, when people have figured that out (the problems of love), then they will be more than just machines"