Main Cast: Joshua Malina, Matthew Broderick, Patricia Arquette, Peter Riegert, Dori Brenner, Jeffrey Force, Peter Michael Goetz
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Actor Matthew Broderick made his directorial debut with this romantic drama based on the life of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Feynman. Feynman (Broderick) grew up in New York, where, early on, he began to display a remarkably keen intelligence and a fascination with science encouraged by his parents. While in high school, Richard meets a beautiful girl named Arline Greenbaum (Patricia Arquette), and they quickly fall in love. Richard and Arline intend to marry someday, but they decide it would be prudent to wait until after they finish college -- they have no money, and Richard intends to attend Princeton after finishing his undergraduate work at M.I.T. However, these plans are changed when Arline discovers that she has tuberculosis, which was a very severe illness in the '30s; treatments were not always effective and victims were generally sent to sanitariums, where they could be quarantined from the rest of the population. With Arline's health in question, Richard agrees to marry her immediately. He's also offered a position in Los Alamos, NM, working on a top-secret project for the government. Richard tries to help Arline through her illness as he begins to develop ethical qualms about his new assignment, which is to help design and construct an atomic bomb. Infinity also stars Peter Riegert and Dori Brenner as Feynman's parents. Broderick's mother, Patricia Broderick, wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
In his first effort behind the camera, actor Matthew Broderick has fashioned a moving film from the story of the tragic first marriage of famed physicist Richard Feynman. Although Feynman (Broderick) was one of the century's greatest physicists, the film is concerned with his love for his first wife Arline Greenbaum (Patricia Arquette) and their brief time together before tuberculosis ended her life. It may be difficult to dramatize the life of a scientist, but one wonders what compelled Broderick to make a film about a renowned scientist if only to emphasize the qualities he shared with everyone else. Nonetheless, it is Feynman's overwhelming love for his wife, along with his amusing eccentricities, that make this sometimes standard melodrama come to life. Broderick is completely engrossing as the dedicated scientist and devoted husband, rushing back and forth for two years between work on the Manhattan Project and weekends at the bedside of his hospitalized wife. Arquette also does well in a difficult role. Despite occasional slow pacing and flat staging, Broderick's touching film is a worthy directorial debut. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Jeffrey (Tex) Schell - Art Director, Philip Euling - Associate Producer, Lisa Bankert - Casting, Don Phillips - Co-producer, Mary Jane Fort - Costume Designer, Fernando Altschul - First Assistant Director, Matthew Broderick - Director, Amy Young - Editor, Elena Maganini - Editor, Bill Johnson - Editor, Bruce Broughton - Songwriter, Bernt Amadeus Capra - Production Designer, Toyomichi Kurita - Cinematographer, Joel Soisson - Producer, Michael Leahy - Producer, Patricia Broderick - Producer, Patricia Broderick - Screenwriter
