Film Screening: Making Mr. Right

Miami PR consultant Frankie Stone (Ann Magnuson) is stuck in her workaday grind, spending long days promoting the candidacy of her smarmy politician ex-boyfriend. She is hired as a consultant for the Ulysses Project, which is seeking congressional funding to launch an android on a deep-space mission. Out on the Space Coast in his corporate lab, grouchy cybernetics genius Dr. Jeff Peters (John Malkovich) is developing the Ulysses bot in his own image—a goofy klutz with his same mop of blond hair, also played by Malkovich, of course. Frankie’s job is to polish the robot’s social skills for publicity appearances to help win over lawmakers’ support. As Frankie spends time getting to know Ulysses, she becomes drawn to his sweetness and naivete, the opposite of Dr. Peters’ awkward angst—and Ulysses develops reciprocal feelings for her. When Ulysses sneaks out of the lab to spend a day at the mall with Frankie, every kind of Miami insanity breaks loose and starts snowballing into a PR nightmare. Will Ulysses get launched into deep space, or will he reprogram himself to be Frankie’s boyfriend? It’s got the kitschy kick of a B-52s video, Malkovich is sublime in his dual role, and Magnuson perfectly embodies the frazzled career woman flailing her way through the indignities of 80s life.