Flash of Genius (2008)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear) is happily married to Phyllis (Lauren Graham) with six children. He's an ethics professor and a mechanical engineer with no manufacturing experience. He does see a problem with his windshield wiper and invents the intermittent windshield wiper. He with the help of Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney) patent and tries to sell the device. He works with Ford and sets up his own manufacturing plant. However, Ford steals his idea and he struggles to gain redress in court.This is a small guy being taken advantage by a large corporation. It's a simple idea and a simple underdog story. The drama is straight forward. There are no big unexpected twists. In the end, it is just compelling enough to be good.

Flash Of Genius was almost unbearable to watch, due to how selfish and relentlessly stupid Bob Kearns was. Yes it's a great performance, yes the acting is good, But who would deprive there family of what they need or a huge amount of cash just to get recognized? I mean sometimes you know when it's enough. I felt Kearns deserved his fate, due to his selfish actions, and everything else, even if he was right.Bottom line. Flash of Genius is a well made movie, but a torturous experience to sit through. They build him up as an underdog, but they don't realize how awfully annoying Bob Kearns truly was. If you really wanna see for yourself, go ahead it's a well made movie, but be prepared to be yelling and screaming due to Kearn's selfishness and stubborn actions.3/10

There's no reason an interesting -- even a fascinating -- movie couldn't be made about an electrical engineer who invents the now-indispensable intermittent windshield wiper, has the device stolen by the Ford Motor Company, strives for recognition for years, and finally succeeds in court while representing himself.This isn't it, though. We learn practically nothing about the device itself. (I've always been curious about how the thing knows when to make its next swipe. What's it got, an alarm clock?) The story focuses on the man himself, a professor of engineering, played by Greg Kinnear, and on his strenuous and increasingly lonely quest.There are too many flaws to make the movie more than of passing interest. Greg Kinnear is neither a thoughtful nor a forceful actor, for one thing. He's good at being mild mannered, and he's THAT, but not much more. In his refusal to compromise with Ford's settlement offers, he projects not the pride of a man cheated but the dumb-calf stolidity of someone who lives in another dimension and is convinced it's real.The script is so formulaic that it suggests that strictly commercial considerations lay behind it.That "other dimension," for instance. Kinnear's character spends some months in a psychiatric hospital. All we see him do on screen is make late-night calls, speak sharply to his family, ask if his assistant has been talking to the enemy, and finally tear angrily into the engine of a stranger's Ford that has his stolen invention in it. For rudeness, you are avoided. For the destruction of a stranger's engine, you get sued or go to jail. What's missing from this picture is what led to his hospitalization.But then the whole thing seems glossed over with familiar cuts and pastes. We've seen it before, the underdog trying to sue the Great External Auditory Meatus Corporation, having to demonstrate the injustice with only minimal resources at his command."Marie" had Sissy Spacek exposing corruption in politics. "Erin Brokovitch" had Julia Roberts fighting Pacific Gas and Electric. In "A Civil Action," John Travolta sacrificed everything to bring Beatrice Foods and Grace and Co. to justice. "Class Action" pitted Gene Hackman against The Cosmological Automobile Company. Paul Newman almost went nuts trying to get money out of St. Catherine Laboret Hospital in "Verdict." Big Tobacco tried to kill the whistle blower in "Insider." And so on and on and on.Of course not all the heroes in these movies went berserk as Kinnear's character apparently does. But then Ron Howard scored big with a lunatic genius in "A Brilliant Mind," which I would guess accounts for the title of this movie.The guy's wife and kids leave him. That's par for the formula course. His children are estranged. His friends shun him. The Ford representatives offer him $11 million but he refuses it and they think he's stupid. He wants his NAME on that WINDSHIELD WIPER! In court, pro se, he makes a fool of himself at first but then is shown making one or two clever cross examinations and wins the case. He may win, but the audience doesn't.

I, for one, strongly oppose any kind of plagiarism because nobody has the right to steal someone else's work and claim it to be theirs. 'Flash of Genius' tells the heartbreaking story of inventer Dr. Kearns. While windshield wipers may sound like a small thing that hardly many give consideration to (as Kearns's friends have told him), it's not a matter of the object at hand but the effort that went behind it and why should credit go to somebody else? I admire Kearns for putting up a fight and keeping up the battle for justice and even though it cost him his family, he fought to the end. I'm surprised as to how little recognition 'Flash of Genius' received considering that the story is extremely relevant even for today's world.The director does a splendid job in telling this moving story. Greg Kinnear delivers a heartfelt lowkeyed performance which is among one of the best of his career. Unfortunately, he remains an underrated actor but I hope he keeps making the wise film choices and gets his due soon. Lauren Graham is wonderfully restrained and marvelous but she's risking getting typecast (she's played supportive wife in two other recent movies 'Evan Almighty' and 'Birds of America'). Dermot Mulroney too stands out as Privick. Where the technical department is concerned, the director has used a lot of subtlety with the cinematography, soundtrack and visuals. It is only later that we realize what an important symbol rain is in this movie. The washed out colour adds to the tense, stressful and sad atmosphere. 'Flash of Genius' is definitely a worthy watch not only because it tells an engaging story but a very relevant one.