Although it took a long time for the subject to get to the movie screen, the timing is pretty good for “Flash of Genius.” After all, this is a film about big corporations exploiting the little guy, and keeping all the money and credit for themselves.
Based on John Seabrook’s classic 1993 New Yorker profile, “Flash of Genius” gives the saga of Robert Kearns, a Detroit inventor obsessed with the way the human eye blinks at different speeds when needed.
In the 1960s, Kearns wondered why a windshield wiper couldn’t do the same thing — move quickly in heavy rain and slowly in light mist. So he invented it.
But that’s just the beginning of the story. After showing his invention to Ford, and believing he had the contract to manufacture the item for the auto giant, Kearns watched as the company canceled their deal with him and brought out their own intermittent wiper, which looked suspiciously like the one he had given them.
Years of legal action followed. If you think the prospect of a movie about endless lawsuits might have its problems, you’d be right. Even though it’s based on this stirring true story, “Flash of Genius” does get mired in a glum slog from one setback to the next.
Kearns is played by Greg Kinnear, whose regular-guy quality turns hangdog here. The film doesn’t quite seem to know how to come down on Kearns, a man of integrity who also was probably a bit nutty. Lauren Graham plays his long-suffering wife, Dermot Mulroney a friend and business associate, and Alan Alda a big-time lawyer.
The mood of the film isn’t lightened by the gloomy touch from longtime producer/first-time director Marc Abraham, who films Detroit (actually mostly shot in Toronto) as though it were an underground tunnel.
Philip Railsback’s script builds to a satisfying series of courtroom scenes, which have the usual appeal of such things. And in this new era of runaway corporations, there should be extra incentive to root for Kearns’ stubborn pursuit of justice in the face of unregulated greed.
And yet the picture just doesn’t spark. It doesn’t reach beyond TV-movie platitudes, or allow in the breath of air. It feels as though the filmmakers wanted to respect a terrific true story, and they respected all the life out of it.
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