Creator (1985)

An eccentric scientist teaches a student in his own manner while he looks for a way to clone his deceased wife.

Director:

Ivan Passer

Writers:

Jeremy Leven (novel), Jeremy Leven (screenplay)

Stars:

Peter O'Toole, Mariel Hemingway, Vincent Spano

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter O'Toole	...	Dr. Harry Wolper
Mariel Hemingway	...	Meli
Vincent Spano	...	Boris Lafkin
Virginia Madsen	...	Barbara Spencer
David Ogden Stiers	...	Dr. Sid Kullenbeck
John Dehner	...	Paul
Karen Kopins	...	Lucy Wolper
Kenneth Tigar	...	Pavlo
Elsa Raven	...	Mrs. Mallory
Lee Kessler	...	Mrs. Pruitt
Rance Howard	...	Mr. Spencer
Ellen Geer	...	Mrs. Spencer
Ian Wolfe	...	Prof. Brauer
Mike Jolly	...	Boom-Boom
Burton Collins	...	Lyman

Storyline

Dr. Harry Wolper is a character. First he steals Boris, a new student assistant by promising him a co-ed's phone number. Then he hijacks new high tech equipment for his own research, confusing the other university researchers who can't see "the big picture." Harry has a plan, he wants to clone his dead wife, but first he needs an egg and a host. He mounts his search by stapling notices to every telephone pole in town from his bike, which is how he meets Mili. As the year progresses, he sees Boris' romance follow the same pattern as his own, twenty-five years ago.

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Plot Keywords:

scientist | dead wife | american football | teaching | pronounced dead | 

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Taglines:

He is obsessed to re-create his wife...she died thirty years ago.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 September 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Big Picture

Filming Locations:

Alexian Bros. Hospital, San Jose, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kings Road Entertainment, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All the letters of the name of the character Meli played by Mariel Hemingway all formed part of Hemingway's real first name of Mariel.

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Quotes

Boris: Can I go home now? I'm kinda jocked out.

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Soundtracks

"I'm a Woman"
Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

User Reviews

Painfully brilliant and mindbogglingly deep!

To be very honest I've never heard of this movie before. Then upon my visit to England I saw it standing there on a shelf at a post office. The price was ridiculously low and Peter O'Toole staring in it, I thought it would be worth the little loose change they charged for it (incidentally the postage stamp I bought to write the folks back home were more expensive then the movie).

And almost a year later I've finally watched it! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

At first I figured it would be a slightly wacky comedy, about a student looking for love and his professor helping him to get close to the girl he wants. I was way off! I must say this movie is THE GREATEST love story I've seen. Forget Zhivago, it's way too pompous, forget Gone with the Wind, it's to sickening sweet, forget Don Juan de Marco, it's too shallow... I admit, this movie had me crying for three times! It's really so touching. And trust me, if a 30 year old guy (happily married and hanging around bars on weekends) admits he's been crying - the movie has got to be emotional.

So what's it about? Imagine a cross over of Good Will Hunting, Dead Poet's Society, Finding Forester, Dragonfly, Groundhog Day and Monkey Business. Hard to do right? But that's about it.

Harry (O'Toole) is an old professor, lost in the memory of his long departed wife. Yet he is a brilliant researcher, the guy that gets the research money donated (needles to say, O'Toole is about as brilliant as it gets). Sid (Stiers) is the sort of an antagonist of the story. He's the cynical, down to earth, materialistic, self-righteous, yet brilliant scholar (basically a role he got famous for in the series M*A*S*H, while he played Dr. Winchester). And then there's Boris (Spano), the young student, who ends up as an assistant to Harry, which naturally changes his life (not as funny as in Oscar while staring next to Stalone, but then again, this is not such a frantic movie). The main story naturally revolves around them, although there are two significant women as well Meli (Hemingway) and Barbara (Madsen). Unfortunately their characters are flatter then O'Toole's or Spano's. They're just there to support the story and to give them opportunity to grow. Still both roles are played superbly, especially Hemingway contributes a lot to an all out comedic effect with her character.

Apart from the story, which you will have to simply experience for yourself (I'm not giving any spoilers away), I was also fascinated by other aspects of this movie. Every character that had lines really contributed. Not a single person interrupted the big picture and the relationship between all the people (no matter how insignificant their roles seemed) really helped to establish the personalities of the main characters. And the music score was also just brilliant.

Really, there isn't a single thing I could fault with this movie. Not because I liked it so much, but because it really was very well made. I mean, you'd think that after a dozen or so times of watching it within a month some flaws would pop up, but no. Everything that's there, just somehow fits the BIG PICTURE! So unless you're really prejudges about movies that stir up your emotions you'll just love this movie and I bet you are going to cry while watching it too.