Intermittent 'Genius'

A Slightly Soggy Salute to the Little Guy

Sorry, couldn't resist.

As if you needed another reason not to buy American, along comes Greg Kinnear in a heart warming tale of innocent innovator vs. automaker avarice in the delightful, if not altogether satisfying, “Flash of Genius.”

You may have noticed a subtle caveat in my previous sentence, so let me be clear that this is film that you should go see regardless of any distastes I may attribute it. The true genius of “Genius” is in its golden, true-blue story line. The bumbling and somewhat naïve Professor Bob Kearns stumbles across a simple solution to the real and marketable problem of creating the intermittent windshield wiper, his titular “flash” of inspiration. The good doctor then proceeds to pitch his idea to industrial giant Ford, while making due diligence to keep his particular lightning-bolt-in-a-bottle safely from the prying eyes of the mammoth motor company. And because a happy tale where everything works from the git-go would never be cinematically viable, Ford lures in the unsuspecting inventor to point to overconfidence, only to snatch his beloved idea and wipe clean the unsuspecting Dr. Kearns. Drama? Check.

We'll steal his invention and sell it for...one million dollars!

The film spends little time building up the Kearn family before jumping in to core plot line, though this is largely due to Greg Kinear being perhaps the most likeable actors ever to push-start a yellow VW van. Kinear, who gives Tom Hanks and Jimmy Stewart a run for their money as most personable everyman actor of all time, is the central pivot for the entire story and plays the watery-eyed, hope-filled Midwestern role to a perfect fit. It is this mild mannered meekness, however, that somewhat detracts from his performance, and almost certainly crosses Kinear off the oscar-hopeful list (sorry, no votes for Ghost Town). Maybe it’s a fault of film being to filmy and real life being to real lifey, but a quality character role has to show a bare minimum of passion to break out of the “passable” realm and into the “I”VE ABANDONED MY CHILD” category of acting. Kinear neither gets too teary nor too livid, providing a likeable, if somewhat lukewarm, performance.

The endearing nature of this film is its foundation in the moral outrage towards Dr. Kearn’s seemingly insurmountable predicament. You will leave this film hating Fords even more than when your Explorer started making that funny noise on your way to the theater. This feeling will no doubt be amplified by the current public sentiment towards big business in general, which also gives the film an unintentional appropriateness for its release.

The unfortunate truth, though, is taking the film out of its modern context, it does not stand up to previous works of similar man vs. the unbeatable like Erin Brokovich, A Civil Action, or To Kill a Mockingbird either as courtroom fare or as righteous fight against injustice. The imbued realism waters down the intensity, sacrificing great film fiction for the “truthiness” of the story. Nevertheless, this wholesome David vs. Goliath tale will make you laugh, make you cry, and make buying that Toyota all the easier. Plus, as a resident of Seattle, I can honestly say that a tale of “the windshield wipers that could” is near and dear to my heart.