Un éclair de génie

It was great to see Greg Kinnear in another flawless performance; here as Dr. Bob Kearns, inventor and professor. To me, I think of Mr. Kinnear as sort of the cocker spaniel of American actors. Perfectly companionable for just about everyone. He just feels right in so many roles it's hard to imagine anyone else having done them. This is another instance of his having added immeasurably to what may have otherwise been a more uninteresting character. After all, it's hard to imagine anyone making an engineer or professor seem interesting; but in this outing Kinnear certainly accomplishes that.

Adding her own note of quiet grace and perfect screen presence, Lauren Graham as Phyllis Kearns gives her character both charm and great heart, not to mention that she looks better in a plain white nightgown that just about anyone I've seen... well, except for my wife, of course.

There are other great performances here too, like Mitch Pileggi as the bad guy from any corporation in America, Tim Kelleher as his greasier side-kick and Dermot Mulroney as a slightly smarmy friend of Kearnes'. Likewise the hoard of young actors playing the Kearns children added a perfect familial note to the vehicle.

But, more than any of these fine people, the focal point here was the story as it always is in these social consciousness melodramas. Yes, Virginia. The wheels of American industry is greased with the bones of the cheated and betrayed genius of America. That is so universally true it's a well known sub-plot to all of America's engineers and manufacturers. What is also well known is what happens when they try to find justice, let alone an iota of truth; which is so accurately and skillfully portrayed in this film.

Speaking as an engineer who has worked in American industry for over 40 years, I can say that I have seen this more times than I can count. It goes on every day right here under your noses, America, and no one ever does a thing to change the way America fails to protect her fragile genius. That is deliberately so. That is so because the laws America uses to define how these things are handled are made by lawyers, for lawyers. It would cease to be profitable if the laws were crafted to actually protect it's most precious resource - it's creative people. But it's not; the laws are instead crafted to provide fat and frequent paychecks to every leach that slithers through the "halls of justice".

Just as Kearns did, I had to learn the hard way that justice in America belongs only to those with a fat enough wallet to buy it through the local outlet. If you don't have the six figures to hire a lawyer then you have no rights and no freedom in this country. Like a Wildebeest grazing blissfully in the middle of the herd, you have only not been awakened to that fact yet because no one has yet decided to attack you, or steal from you.

This has been the long way around to tell you that the creators of the film got it exactly right, with one serious flaw... for every Bob Kearns who has eviscerated themselves to win a Pyrrhic victory of the sort we witness here, there have been thousands who have given up for being too shallow in pocket or too short of mental fortitude or too short of the desire for self-flagellation required to press through to an empty, moral victory.

And even here, we see unmistakably that this "victory" costs Kearns what he valued most in his life. He didn't even live to see himself depicted as "heroic" in this fine film.

Still, thank you Bob, wherever you are.

Time after time, Anerican audiences have stood witness to the fact Inventors have created and continue to create some of the most important breakthroughs in history. As a result, America has become the Land of Opportunity for any young inventor to make his mark in history. However, there are those in high position who believe they are so powerful, they can reach out and steal anything they want with total impunity. This movie is a case in point. The worthy film is called a " Flash of Genius. " It is essentially the story of Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear) a college professor who in a moment of inspiration, invents a wind shield wiper with an oscillating program. A top executive of the Ford Motor company ( Mitch Pileggi) tries to plays the professor for a fool and disregarding the little man, steals his patents. Though it will take money, time, effort and patience to fight the industrial giant, Kearns risks all to fight for what he believes is the right thing to do. Alan Alda plays a wimp of a lawyer and tries to convince Kearns to take a tiny settlement and give up the fight. Despite the risk of losing his wife, his family and even his sanity, Kearns is determined and creates a wonderful David vs Goliath story. Highly recommended to anyone who believe in fighting with the best weapon of all; the truth. ****

This is another true David & Goliath story which pits a home inventor, Bob Kearns, who develops a working intermittent windshield wiper control, against the Ford Motor Company who stole his idea after he demonstrated it to them. The strain is at times too much for Kearns who eventually suffers a mental breakdown, but comes back to take on Ford in a monumental lawsuit despite the strains on his marriage & family.

While a lot of people probably won't be interested in true life stories like this, I enjoy them and did enjoy this movie. The acting is good, and since the story is set in the 1960's & 1970's, you really get a feel for that era. It's worth a watch.

Just imagine over 30 years ago inventing something as useful as the intermittent windshield wiper, a device everyone uses when it rains. Now that's immortality for inventor Bob Kearns, professor and engineer.

What is more astonishing is he was almost forgotten after the Ford Motor Company usurped the design and promoted it as its own. The dramatic tension is Kearns' fight for recognition involving years of personal and familial losses. The two moments of inspiration, the "flash of genius," one a personal eye injury and the other driving in the driving rain, are dramatically satisfying if not downright underplayed (appealing to my minimalist sensibilities).

The film is exciting when Kearns is developing the device with those design inspiration moments fleshed out and the partnering with Ford slowly materializing. The film slows down as if in a school zone when at least a third of the Kearns' time is spent struggling with wife Phyllis Kearns (Lauren Graham) over the cost to them in time and trauma to go after Ford. The dutiful wife suffering the ambitious husband has been played in American cinema and theater too much to be fresh, no different here. The scenes with family, especially his wife, evoke my usual response: All right, already, I get the point. Now get on to the good stuff.

Similarly, Kinnear plays Kearns so low key as to be soporific. Although I don't doubt Kearns was an introverted geek, a dramatic rendition would have enlivened the character without compromising his essence.

Saw the very first showing of this tonight at the Traverse City Film Festival. It was a good movie and Greg Kinnear was very good. The film felt too restricted and hyper focused on the primary movie subject, Bob Kearns. It could have been made better by infusing a bit of side-story from the conflicting characters points of view. Bob Kearns low point in the movie also seemed to happen abruptly with no run-in to the plot twist, so much so that I felt like I missed something. Lauren Graham offered a fine performance, as did Dermot Mulroney's limited screen time. Overall I liked the movie but felt more could have been done to fill some gaps.