Flash of Genius

In the movie “Flash of Genius,” Bob Kearns, played by Greg Kinnear, asks his family, “What do I always say?” His son shouts immediately, “Who farted?” With a knowing smile, Kearns replies, “Besides that,” and proceeds to deliver one of the film’s many earnest but tiresome lectures to his children. Though hard to believe, this lame joke is one of the funniest cracks in the movie. Although Kearns’ corny sense of humor adds to the sense that he is a boring, everyday kind of guy, it’s also one of many traits that makes him a boring kind of guy to watch.

“Flash of Genius” is based on the true story of engineering professor Bob Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper only to see it stolen and produced by Ford. While the question of what it means to create something new is certainly interesting, there is hardly a duller medium with which to address it than a drama that focuses on windshield wipers.

The tale of the little guy who tries to bring the big company to justice is not an unfamiliar one. In “Erin Brockovich,” Julia Roberts plays a single mom who takes a power company to task for contaminating water supplies. In “The Insider,” Russell Crowe resolves to use his inside knowledge to bring down Big Tobacco. But both these films deal with moral issues of a more urgent nature and have heroes who are more engaging and three-dimensional.

Kearns’ defining trait is his doggish grip on one idea: that he deserves the credit and the profit for his invention. But while his earnest demeanor and sense of right and wrong are at first endearing, his unyielding desire for justice soon alienates his wife, children, friends, and, eventually, his audience.

The performances of the supporting characters do little to distract the audience from Kearns’ more irritating qualities. “Gilmore Girls” actress Lauren Graham plays Kearns’s wife, and while her character is sympathetic, she is sidelined so quickly that Graham has little time to develop her personality.

The film’s style, which could have served to elevate its subject matter, only deadens it. Just as Kinnear portrays a very ordinary man, director Marc Abraham places him in a very dreary world—1950s Detroit. The color quality of the film is bleak and sometimes so washed-out as to seem almost black and white. The muted music of the soundtrack is often overshadowed by background noises, such as people murmuring in a restaurant or traffic on a puddle-filled street.

The only breaks from the film’s monotony are certain melodramatic sequences, such as one in which Kearns, driving around at night, spots cars on the street that sport his new invention. Ominous orchestral music plays, and the revving engines and facelessness of the drivers combine to transform the cars into frightening beasts.

The film begins to redeem itself toward the end, as Kearns finally takes Ford to trial. Once in the courtroom, the natural drama that a trial creates quickens the pace of the film and awakens the audience’s interest. However, even in the courtroom, Kearns’ metaphors are somewhat heavy-handed, and he beats to death the film’s theme of the individuality of human invention.

Without the overemphasized morality of Kearns’s struggle, “Flash of Genius” might have been a trite but heart-warming tale of one man’s success against all odds. However, because of the film’s botched attempt at gravity and intellectual debate, it fails at achieving even that level of mediocrity.

—Staff writer Rachel A. Burns can be reached at rburns@fas.harvard.edu.