Young Einstein

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Movie - Young Einstein

Year: 1988
Rated: PG
Parental Rating: Good for children
Country Of Origin: Australia
Running Time: 91
Format: Color
Genre(s): Comedy
Production: Serious
Released By: Warner Bros.

To say that Yahoo Serious (nee Greg Pead), the Australian writer, director, coproducer, editor, and star of YOUNG EINSTEIN, takes a few liberties with the title physicist's life in this off-the-wall "mockudrama" is like saying that Ingmar Bergman is "concerned with major themes." As the title character, Serious sports an updated version of Einstein's familiar fright-wig haircut, but there the resemblance ends. His Einstein, the son of humble Tasmanian apple farmers, happens upon the theory of relativity early in life, and uses his discovery to split the beer atom. Later in life, young Einstein invents both the electric guitar and the surfboard. When not inventing, he finds time to court young Marie Curie (Odile le Clezio), who is a studying at Sydney University. YOUNG EINSTEIN's satire wanders into Monty Python territory, but Serious' warmly affectionate (if not downright respectful) send-up of Einstein isn't biting enough to be truly Pythonesque. If anything, the film plays like screwball comedy made by an oddball science buff, managing to be at once broad and subtle, raucous and gentle, crude and sophisticated, scattershot and utterly precise. Lanky and loose-limbed, yet unexpectedly low-key and graceful as a physical comic, Serious himself is a pleasantly cartoonish screen presence, but he conveys an underlying, offhand intelligence that hints at an acute familiarity with his subject. leave a comment

Cast

Yahoo Serious: Albert Einstein

Odile le Clezio: Marie Curie

Charlie Abrahams: Preston Preston

Pee Wee Wilson: Mr. Einstein

Su Cruickshank: Mrs. Einstein

Lulu Pinkus: The Blonde

Kaarin Fairfax: The Brunette

Michael Lake: Manager

Jonathan Coleman: Wolfgang Bavarian

Johnny McCall: Rudy Bavarian

Michael Blaxland: Desk Clerk