Build a movie plot around this: Who was doctoral candidate? Catherine Boyd
Is everything random "or is there a Grand Design?" muses Albert Einstein at the opening of the film. And we are left with the ultimate conclusion that where true love is concerned at least, the answer is a resounding "Yes" to a Grand Design.An easy-going garage mechanic, Ed Walters (Tim Robbins), meets Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan), a successful Princeton University mathematics doctoral candidate, as she comes into the garage, accompanied by her resistant and critical English fiance, acerbic experimental psychology professor James Moreland (Stephen Fry). There is an immediate "electric" connection which Ed recognizes, but she is not yet aware.Ed sees his future, briefly, and Catherine is a major part of it; they are married, and have children together. "How long will all of this take?" asks Catherine, referring to the car repair, and Ed, thinking about their future life together, replies, "That's up to you". His life purpose has suddenly been decided by a force of nature greater than himself.Finding a watch she left at the garage, Ed travels to her address and finds himself face to face with Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau), who is Catherine's uncle.[1]Albertportrayed as a fun-loving geniusand his mischievous friends, fellow scientists Nathan Liebknecht (Joseph Maher), Kurt Godel (Lou Jacobi), and Boris Podolsky (Gene Saks), see Ed as someone who would be better suited for Catherine. The four of them try to help Ed look and sound like a scientist (i.e., a "wunderkind" in physics) temporarily, in order to garner Catherine's attention for Ed, while at the same time trying to convince Catherine that life is not all about the mind, but is also about the heart. James's heart is virtually non-existent, while Ed's heart is virtually limitless.Einstein sees bringing Ed and Catherine together as his most enduring legacy to his niece, because she was of the mistaken opinion that her only contribution to the world was to be through her children, and that she therefore must marry a total intellectual because...