Making Mr Right

Plot

Jeff Peters (John Malkovich) is an emotionally repressed scientist who cannot stand others because of their intellectual inferiority. He dreams of deep space exploration, which would be difficult because of the lack of human contact for long periods of time. He develops the Ulysses android (which looks exactly like him) for the purpose of space exploration, since an android would not be affected by the isolation.

Frankie Stone (Ann Magnuson) is hired to do public relations for the project. As a part of her job, she must get to know the android better, in order to "humanize" him for the benefit of the project's sponsors in Congress. However, in his interaction with her, the android develops emotions and develops better social skills than the scientist himself. At one point the android impersonates Jeff in order to leave the laboratory, and stows away in Frankie's Chevrolet Corvair. After escaping he encounters human society at a shopping mall, buys a tuxedo, goes on a date with a woman (Laurie Metcalf) who thinks he is Jeff, reducing her to an emotional wreck, and then loses his head (literally) over Frankie's best friend Trish (Glenne Headly) who has taken refuge in Frankie's apartment after walking out on her husband who is a star on the popular daytime soap opera New Jersey.

Frankie also develops feelings for the android and befriends Jeff on a lesser level. Frankie's mother, (Polly Bergen) learns from Frankie's ex-boyfriend's (Steve) mother that Frankie has a doctor boyfriend (Jeff) and expects Frankie to bring him to the wedding of Frankie's sister. Frankie persuades Jeff to come, but Ulysses again absconds from the lab and gate-crashes the wedding. Trish's jealous TV-star husband crashes the wedding and gets into a fight with Ulysses. Ulysses short-circuits and crashes into the swimming pool, turning the occasion into a public relations disaster. Frankie is fired from her job and forbidden contact with Ulysses or anyone on the project. She attempts to say goodbye on launch day by using her connections with a former client and boyfriend (Steve), a candidate for Congress, but she only sees Ulysses during his farewell speech, in which he bemoans the tendency of humans and their tragic emotional relationships.

Eventually, it becomes clear that Ulysses' final speech was actually made by Jeff, who has realized he cannot deal with people. Due to his lack of social skills, Jeff realizes that the lack of human contact will not be a hardship for him. Jeff decided to go into space while the android takes his place on Earth so Ulysses and Frankie (who by now are deeply in love) can be together.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, as it holds a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

DVD

Making Mr. Right was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1st, 2003.