![flash of genius flash of genius](https://www.coursehero.com/thumb/3a/b3/3ab3a75a4b5e0ab8bdf73c90cb329eaa460eb79c_180.jpg)
Then Ford cancels the contract and, surprise, debuts a car with his innovation. Naive but ambitious, Bob signs a deal with Ford and plans to manufacture the wipers himself with a friend and business partner (Dermot Mulroney).
#Flash of genius movie#
What he invents - wipe-pause-wipe - is a widget the auto companies have been working on for years, and the movie never convincingly explains why his widget works where theirs didn't. A family man (Lauren Graham plays his wife and a gaggle of young actors play his six kids across the decades), Bob's a garage tinkerer who in 1963 tries to build a better windshield wiper after getting caught - skreek-skreek - in a light rain. Brought to us by Marc Abraham, a longtime film producer ("Air Force One," "Children of Men") making his directorial debut, the film casts Greg Kinnear as Robert Kearns, an absent-minded professor at Michigan's Wayne State University who battles Detroit for decades after the auto companies steal his invention. Anyway, the problem with "Flash of Genius" isn't that the subject is dull but that the movie is. It's a very earnest movie and I don't mean to be cruel, but shouldn't we draw the line on biopics right around here? Can the life struggles of the discoverer of dental floss be far behind? A miniseries on the inventor of the toilet tank ball?Īll right, enough with the snark.
![flash of genius flash of genius](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2008/09/07/arts/07ciep600.jpg)
Running time: 120 MIN."Flash of Genius" is a true-story drama about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Aug. Screenplay, Philip Railsback, based on the New Yorker article by John Seabrook.Ĭamera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Dante Spinotti editor, Jill Savitt music, Aaron Zigman production designer, Hugo Lucyzc-Wyhowski art director, Patrick Banister costume designer, Luis Sequeira sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Glen Gauthier supervising sound editor, Darren King re-recording mixer, Jon Taylor assistant director, Myron Hoffert casting, Denise Charmian. Produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Michael Lieber. Except for Mulroney and, briefly, Alan Alda as an attorney, supporting performances are colorless.Ī Universal release of a Universal Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation of a Barber/Birnbaum/Strike production. The lessons are simplistic: Stick to your guns, stand up for yourself, fight the big bully, etc., all without depth, attention to the ironic consequences of this stand or the effect on the inner lives of those involved.īeyond the narrative shortcomings, the film is indifferently filmed, with uncustomarily flat visuals by cinematographer Dante Spinotti and listless pacing. No matter the ultimate reward for his stubbornness - the court case, in which Kearns represented himself, is unavoidably engaging at times - this story simply doesn’t take on ramifications or meaning that extend beyond the specifics of this particular case. His wife Phyllis (Lauren Graham) and key business backer Gil (Dermot Mulroney) support his sense of outrage for a while, but he - and, with him, the film - then drift off into many years in the wilderness, as Ford throws every conceivable legal roadblock in his way. After presenting his invention to Ford and receiving a sufficient commitment to open a factory to move ahead with a prototype, the auto giant cuts him off. Scripter Philip Railsback, working from a story published in the New Yorker, and helmer Marc Abraham, the vet producer making his debut behind the camera, manage to make Kearns’ one contribution to history - his equating the blinking of the human eye to what an automobile windshield wiper should do and finding a way to engineer such a thing - interesting in a quaint, even amusing way, which sustains viewer interest through the first act.īut nothing else, least of all his interactions with the ever-growing family he professes to care about so much, comes alive or carries much conviction. Robert Kearns, a middle-class Detroit teacher, basement tinkerer and Catholic father of many, had a legitimate beef against Big Auto is perfectly clear, and his obstinate determination to prove his point, even to the detriment of his family’s cohesion and his own stability, is moderately inspiring in the way such true-life stories of “the indomitable human spirit” are always constructed to be.īut it’s also unavoidable that Kearns, as nicely played by Greg Kinnear, was a pretty milquetoasty guy - and he’s the colorful one in the family.