Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Robert J. Maxwell There's no reason an interesting -- even a fascinating -- movie couldn't be made about an electrical engineer who invents the now-indispensable intermittent windshield wiper, has the device stolen by the Ford Motor Company, strives for recognition for years, and finally succeeds in court while representing himself.This isn't it, though. We learn practically nothing about the device itself. (I've always been curious about how the thing knows when to make its next swipe. What's it got, an alarm clock?) The story focuses on the man himself, a professor of engineering, played by Greg Kinnear, and on his strenuous and increasingly lonely quest.There are too many flaws to make the movie more than of passing interest. Greg Kinnear is neither a thoughtful nor a forceful actor, for one thing. He's good at being mild mannered, and he's THAT, but not much more. In his refusal to compromise with Ford's settlement offers, he projects not the pride of a man cheated but the dumb-calf stolidity of someone who lives in another dimension and is convinced it's real.The script is so formulaic that it suggests that strictly commercial considerations lay behind it.That "other dimension," for instance. Kinnear's character spends some months in a psychiatric hospital. All we see him do on screen is make late-night calls, speak sharply to his family, ask if his assistant has been talking to the enemy, and finally tear angrily into the engine of a stranger's Ford that has his stolen invention in it. For rudeness, you are avoided. For the destruction of a stranger's engine, you get sued or go to jail. What's missing from this picture is what led to his hospitalization.But then the whole thing seems glossed over with familiar cuts and pastes. We've seen it before, the underdog trying to sue the Great External Auditory Meatus Corporation, having to demonstrate the injustice with only minimal resources at his command."Marie" had Sissy Spacek exposing corruption in politics. "Erin Brokovitch" had Julia Roberts fighting Pacific Gas and Electric. In "A Civil Action," John Travolta sacrificed everything to bring Beatrice Foods and Grace and Co. to justice. "Class Action" pitted Gene Hackman against The Cosmological Automobile Company. Paul Newman almost went nuts trying to get money out of St. Catherine Laboret Hospital in "Verdict." Big Tobacco tried to kill the whistle blower in "Insider." And so on and on and on.Of course not all the heroes in these movies went berserk as Kinnear's character apparently does. But then Ron Howard scored big with a lunatic genius in "A Brilliant Mind," which I would guess accounts for the title of this movie.The guy's wife and kids leave him. That's par for the formula course. His children are estranged. His friends shun him. The Ford representatives offer him $11 million but he refuses it and they think he's stupid. He wants his NAME on that WINDSHIELD WIPER! In court, pro se, he makes a fool of himself at first but then is shown making one or two clever cross examinations and wins the case. He may win, but the audience doesn't.

Mark Main Greg Kinnear was fantastic in this movie as Robert Kearns, inventor of the intermittent wiper. But there is some very interesting irony with this story as well.Florence Lawrence who was the world's first movie star and received the very first movie credit ever--the movie was "The Broken Oath" released on November 15, 1910.According to Kelly R. Brown's 1999 biography, Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, she was an avid automobile driver during a period when very few people actually owned cars. In 1914 she invented the first turn signal, which she called an 'auto signaling arm', which attached to the back fender. When a driver pressed a button it electrically raised or lowered a sign attached that indicated the direction of the intended turn. Her brake signal worked on the same principle that an arm with a sign reading 'stop' rose up whenever the driver pressed the brake pedal. This was the essential concept behind today's brake lights.Unfortunately Lawrence did not properly patent her inventions and soon other, more refined versions were invented and brought to market.However, in 1917 with her mother she did patent a system of electrical windshield wipers, but it made no money. By the time the first electrical turn signals became standard equipment on the 1939 Buick, her contributions were long forgotten and she was dead." I find it amazingly ironic that the windshield wiper was a thorn in the side to not only Robert Kearns, the intermittent wiper inventor, but the original wiper inventor as well, Florence Lawrence.

meeza One can have a legitimate argument when they voice that most Hollywood bio pics are a "flash in the pan"; but most certainly not "Flash of Genius". Director Marc Abraham's brilliant film on Dr. Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, was not one wet dud. The narrative motors on Dr. Kearns' legal battle with the Ford Company, whom stole his revolutionary invention. But the narrative does not wipe away Kearns relationship with his wife Phyllis and his six kids, as it plays an integral part in the story. By the way, The Kearns fell just two short to be Gosselinized. Abraham does drive the motion that Kearns was an obsessive inventor who constantly fixated on obtaining justice for the Ford larceny. The ramification of that fixation for Kearns is that it wiped away his marriage with his mostly supportive but consequently impatient wife which he adored. Even though Dr. Kearns had his egoistic eccentricities, you have to admire his driven determination to stop short on nothing to obtain legitimate justice for his invention. Kearns actually represented himself in his legal battle, which actually provides the film's court scenes to have a semi-comical edge and an inspirational driving-force theme. Director Abraham marvelously invented & constructed "Flash of Genius" with bio clarity on one man's battle. Screenwriter Phillip Railsback scribed up a gripping and inspirational screenplay; ingenious movie wordsmith work here by Railsback. But what wiped me off my socks the most was the astounding performance of star Greg Kinnear as Kearns. I think the Academy did not see it too clear when they did not nominate Kinnear for a Best Actor Oscar for his shining work here. Commendable supporting acting work was also contributed to "Flash of Genius" by the clear-cut performances of Dermot Mulroney as Kearns' friend & business partner Gil Privick, and Alan Alda as a semi-pushy counsel Gregory Lawson. However, Lauren Graham's effort as Phyllis Kearns was not all that it was cracked up to be and she seemed to be in mediocre-thespian cruise control throughout the movie. Nevertheless, this is a "must-see" movie! So invent an entertaining day for you today by allocating some time for a "Flash of Genius" viewing. ***** Excellent

DQGladstone I was hesitant to watch this film because it was described as a "feel good" movie and I suspected that was crap. And I was right, thank you, this film doesn't make you feel good at all.When Dr. Kearns starts his college lecture with a mention of "ethics" you know he's doomed. Doomed to waste his time, doomed to lose his wife, his good name and reputation as it turns out.Dermot Mulroney is excellent as the industry insider who has all the answers until he doesn't have all the answers. He and Alan Alda both play salesmen who are interested in selling Kearns on their own expertise and wind up failing him. Reliable characters who prove to be unreliable make the world go around.That is what is at the heart of the film for me, the psyche game that the individual is involved with until s/he discovers that everyone is full of shite and can't be trusted.Kearns isn't just fighting for his beliefs, he's fighting against his own family who are naive enough to believe that HIS struggles as an individual are less important than his responsibilities as a father and husband. They believe that he can deny his own beliefs and still be an effective husband and father. The kids come around eventually but not without a loss of precious time.It's an important part of the story that Kearns loses his sanity for a time in his struggle between his own beliefs and the beliefs that are pushed at him by Mulroney, Alda and his family (society). We understand that the struggle to live ethically is destroying his sanity.Greg Kinnear is great in this role with his subtle comedic moments and ability to keep a sense of humor and humanity with his kids as well as his righteous anger against the industry players.There is the unfortunate obligatory Hollywood moment where he is looking for reconciliation with the wife who deserted him when he really needed her but...Also interesting is the look at the legal system and how it benefits the big guys who break the rules and frequently make the rules, too.Kearns wins, ultimately, but a "feel good" movie? The only thing I feel good about after this film is that I'm a city pedestrian and don't own a car.