Flash of Genius (2008)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Marc Abraham

Writers (WGA):

Philip Railsback (written by)
John Seabrook (article)

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Corporations have time, money, and power on their side. All Bob Kearns had was the truth.

Plot:

Robert Kearns takes on the Detroit automakers who he claims stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper.

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Teacher | Automobile Industry | Automobile | Inventor

Cast

Greg Kinnear	...	Bob Kearns
Tim Eddis	...	Maryland Cop #1
Warren Belle	...	Maryland Cop #2
Karl Pruner	...	Pete
Bill Lake	...	Scott
Dermot Mulroney	...	Gil Privick
Lauren Graham	...	Phyllis Kearns
Landon Norris	...	Young Dennis Kearns
Shae Norris	...	Young Kathy Kearns
Steven Woodworth	...	Young Tim Kearns
Victoria Learn	...	Young Maureen Kearns
Dylan Authors	...	Young Pat Kearns
Ronn Sarosiak	...	Reverend
Tom Rooney	...	Jerry Barnley
Andrew Gillies	...	Paul Previck

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Runtime:

USA:119 min | Canada:119 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44181) | Australia:PG | UK:12A | Ireland:PG | France:U | Germany:o.Al.

Filming Locations:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Universal Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Ford had electric intermittent wipers available for the full size models by 1968, same year as the Lincoln Mark III they installed his invention on. The Ford version also had a "ready" and "park" position, which his didn't.

Movie Connections:

References Frankenstein (1931)

Soundtrack:

Sailor's Hornpipe

Flags for a bit, but concludes beautifully

Flash of Genius is the true story of the man who invented the intermittent wiper blade - only to see the Ford Mother company swipe the invention for their own benefit. But of course, this being a Hollywood film, the little guy fights back against the big, mean corporation, losing his family, wife, and sanity in the process.

Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear) is an engineering professor who comes up with the idea of the intermittent blade while driving his family - wife and six kids - home from church one rainy afternoon. He puts together a prototype and shops it to Ford, which quickly warms to the idea. Then suddenly changes its mind, saying it’s just not ready. And then double-plus suddenly, there are all these Ford cars on the road with those very same wiper blades. This is probably not a coincidence.

What follows is your standard David/Goliath courtroom drama, without the courtroom (save for the finale). Bob fights back against Ford, but no one, not even high-powered attorney Alan Alda, really wants to help. Worse still, Bob doesn’t even want a cash settlement, he wants an apology from Ford, an acknowledgment that they stole his awesome idea. This might surprise you, but they decline to do so.

On the one hand, this is a straightforward story about the little buy fighting back against all odds, taking on the big automakers at a time when the Big Three reigned supreme. After all, Ford has all the time in the world to devote to defending itself against Kearns’ claims, whereas Bob has to scrimp and hope he can make some headway; they can outlast him as surely as a rock can outlast a summer storm. They have resources, and all he has is his devoted family.

Well, not so much. Devoted to a point, perhaps. The strain of the legal battles soon take their toll on Bob and his wife, Phyllis (Lauren Graham), as well as the various kids. Which brings us to the second, even more important, conflict in this story, that between Bob and Everyone Who Means Something To Him.

This is an innocuous, slight movie; it doesn’t grab you so much as kind of pull you along reluctantly, until the final, courtroom scene. The rule for courtroom dramas seems to be this: If the protagonist has been built up sufficiently but the audience does NOT tear up when the inevitable verdict is read, then the movie is a failure. I mean, it’s really not complicated. If there’s no payoff, then everything leading up to that point has been for naught, so everyone involved has to pull off that final scene. The nice thing is that pulling off that scene, otherwise known as manipulating the audience, is pretty elementary, high-school stuff. It’s tough to mess it up.

And they don’t. True to form, that final scene makes up for all the methodical pacing of the other 90 minutes or so. Kinnear’s earnest and well cast, and Graham is a delight as his doting, no-nonsense wife. Alda’s showy role doesn’t really amount to much at all, contrary to what the trailer showed. But all in all, it’s a well done, if somewhat forgettable, movie.