Flash of Genius (film)
Encyclopedia
Flash of Genius is a 2008
American
biographical film
directed by Marc Abraham
. The screenplay by Philip Railsback, based on a 1993 New Yorker
article by John Seabrook
, focuses on Robert Kearns
and his legal battle against the Ford Motor Company
when they developed an intermittent windshield wiper
based on ideas the inventor had patent
ed.
The film's title, the phrase "flash of genius
," is patent law terminology which was in effect from 1941 to 1952, which held that the inventive act must come into the mind of an inventor as a kind of epiphany and not as a result of tinkering. Although this test lasted little more than a decade, it was most likely an appealing and easy standard for judges and unsophisticated jurors to apply to any given patent dispute when the technology being disputed was beyond their scientific acumen.
(Greg Kinnear
) almost completely blind in his left eye. A decade later, he is happily married to Phyllis (Lauren Graham
) and the father of six children. As he drives his Ford Galaxie
through a light rain, the constant movement of the windshield wipers irritates his troubled vision. The incident inspires him to create a wiper blade mechanism modeled on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds rather than continuously.
With financial support from Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney
), Kearns converts his basement into a laboratory and develops a prototype
he tests in a fish tank before installing it in his car. He patents his invention and demonstrates it for Ford researchers, who had been working on a similar project without success. Kearns refuses to explain how his mechanism works until he hammers out a favorable deal with the corporation. Impressed with Kearns' results, executive Macklin Tyler (Mitch Pileggi
) asks him to prepare a business plan detailing the cost of the individual units, which Robert intends to manufacture himself. Considering this to be sufficient commitment from the company, he rents a warehouse he plans to use as a factory and forges ahead. He presents Ford with the pricing information it requested along with a sample unit, then waits for their response. Time passes, and when nobody contacts Robert, he begins placing phone calls that are never returned.
Frustrated, Kearns attends a Ford dealers convention at which the latest model of the Mustang
is unveiled, promoting the intermittent wiper as a selling point. Realizing the company has used his idea without giving him credit or payment for it, Robert begins his descent into a despair so deep he boards a Greyhound bus
and heads for Washington, D.C.
, where he apparently hopes to find legal recourse. Instead, Maryland
state troopers remove him from the bus and escort him to a mental hospital
, where he is treated for a nervous breakdown
. Finally released when doctors decide his obsession has subsided, he returns home a broken man, determined to receive public acknowledgement for his accomplishment. Thus begins years of legal battles, during which time his wife leaves him and he becomes estranged from his children.
At trial, Kearns represents himself after attorney Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda
) withdraws from the case because Robert refuses to settle
. Eventually his ex-wife and offspring support him in his endeavor. Toward the end of the trial, Ford offers Kearns a $30 million settlement, but with no admission of wrongdoing. He decides to leave his fate in the hands of the jury, who determine that Ford infringed his patents, but that the infringement was not deliberate. The jury awards him $10.1 million. The closing credits indicate that Robert later wins an $18.7 million judgement from Chrysler Corporation as well.
, Air Force One
, and Children of Men
, among many others, had long been drawn to the Robert Kearns saga for his directorial debut because the inventor believed more in fairness and honesty than the money offered to him to make him drop his lawsuit. "That's the reason I was passionate about it. It was about principle," the director said. "And principle is a very gray idea. And that's what I thought was exciting." He submitted numerous revisions of the screenplay to Universal Studios
chief Stacey Snider, who repeatedly told him, "This is not an easy script, and he's not a likable guy." Abraham believed what many might find unlikable in Kearns, with whom he consulted while developing the film, is what made him a distinctive character. When Universal underwent a change of management, the project finally was greenlit
.
The film was shot on location in Hamilton
and Toronto
, Ontario
.
The scene when Ford's new line of cars with the intermittent wiper is shown for the first time was shot in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
in Vancouver
, British Columbia
.
The soundtrack
includes "Too Many Fish In The Sea" by Liam Titcomb
, "Green Onions
" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s
, and "Tennessee Waltz" by Aaron Zigman.
The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival
and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival
before going into theatrical release in the United States.
reported Flash of Genius has a 58% approval rating, based on 102 reviews.
Stephen Holden
of The New York Times
called the film "a meticulously constructed mechanism, one that wants to convey the same mixture of idealism
, obsession and paranoia
found in whistle-blower movies like Silkwood
and The Insider
," but thought it "has the tone and texture of a well-made but forgettable television movie
." He added "Flash of Genius would have been more gripping had it pinpointed events and conveyed the harrowing physical, emotional and financial cost of Kearns’s quest."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
said the film tells its story in "faithful and often moving detail." He added, "If it has a handicap, it's that Kearns was not a colorful character, more of a very stubborn man with tunnel vision
.... Kinnear, often a player of light comedy, does a convincing job of making this quiet, resolute man into a giant slayer."
Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times
said the film's problem "is that it wants so desperately to be a Hollywood-style story of the little guy triumphing over the big guy that it races past much of the subtlety of Kearns' story, smoothing things out so that it wouldn't be a spoiler to reveal the ending (though I won't) because it's blatantly marching in from a mile away. Flash of Genius wants so much to be liked, even with its prickly, difficult hero, that it misses the mark of nonobviousness necessary not only for a patent, but also for a thrilling, original work."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
agreed with Olsen and Holden, describing the film as "very small potatoes in the cinematic annals of inspiring little-guy-fights-the-system melodrama
s, to the point that it's a wonder it was thought to be strong bigscreen material; an old-style TV movie would have been more like it." He added, "Beyond the narrative shortcomings, the film is indifferently filmed, with uncustomarily flat visuals by cinematographer Dante Spinotti and listless pacing."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle
said the biopic "is like watching Charlie Brown
keep trying, even after the 30th time Lucy
has pulled the football away. It's hard to tell whether Kearns is being noble or stupid, and halfway through the movie, most sane people in the audience will be rooting for him to give up his fight." He continued, "Marc Abraham has made a movie much like the Will Smith
-as-plucky-homeless-guy drama The Pursuit of Happyness
, where two hours of suffering may or may not lead to a single triumphant moment. It's a similar experience to watching a 1-0 soccer game that is decided in overtime. Sure, absolutely nothing resembling feel-good entertainment happens in the first 90 minutes. But oh, that overtime goal ..."
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone
rated the film three out of four stars and commented, "Kinnear takes the star spot in Flash of Genius and rides it to glory...Kearns wasn't a movie hero. His halting courtroom delivery lacked Hollywood histrionics. Kinnear plays him with blunt honesty, sagging under the weight of stress but maintaining a bulldog tenacity that would win the day. Was the battle worth it? Kearns' conflict is readable in Kinnear's every word and gesture. His performance is worth cheering."
format with audio tracks in English and Spanish and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. Bonus features include commentary by Marc Abraham and deleted scenes.
2008 in film
This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
biographical film
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
directed by Marc Abraham
Marc Abraham
Marc Abraham is an American film producer, and president of Strike Entertainment, a production company he launched in early 2002 with a multi-year, first look arrangement with Universal Pictures.-Biography:...
. The screenplay by Philip Railsback, based on a 1993 New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
article by John Seabrook
John Seabrook
John Seabrook is an American journalist who writes about technology and popular culture. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993....
, focuses on Robert Kearns
Robert Kearns
Robert William Kearns was the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most automobiles from 1969 to the present. His first patent for the invention was filed on December 1, 1964....
and his legal battle against the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
when they developed an intermittent windshield wiper
Windscreen wiper
A windscreen wiper or windshield wiper is a device used to remove rain and debris from a windscreen or windshield. Almost all motor vehicles, including trains, aircraft and watercraft, are equipped with such wipers, which are usually a legal requirement.A wiper generally consists of an arm,...
based on ideas the inventor had patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed.
The film's title, the phrase "flash of genius
Flash of genius
The Flash of Genius Doctrine or Flash of Genius Test was a test for patentability used by the United States Federal Courts for over a decade, circa 1941. The doctrine was formalized in Cuno Engineering v. Automatic Devices., which held that the inventive act had to come into the mind of an...
," is patent law terminology which was in effect from 1941 to 1952, which held that the inventive act must come into the mind of an inventor as a kind of epiphany and not as a result of tinkering. Although this test lasted little more than a decade, it was most likely an appealing and easy standard for judges and unsophisticated jurors to apply to any given patent dispute when the technology being disputed was beyond their scientific acumen.
Plot
On his wedding night in 1953, an errant champagne cork renders college engineering professor Robert KearnsRobert Kearns
Robert William Kearns was the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most automobiles from 1969 to the present. His first patent for the invention was filed on December 1, 1964....
(Greg Kinnear
Greg Kinnear
Gregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of...
) almost completely blind in his left eye. A decade later, he is happily married to Phyllis (Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham
Lauren Helen Graham is an American actress and producer. She is best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on the WB Network dramedy series Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.-Early life:...
) and the father of six children. As he drives his Ford Galaxie
Ford Galaxie
The Ford Galaxie was a full-size car built in the United States by the Ford Motor Company for model years 1959 through 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race...
through a light rain, the constant movement of the windshield wipers irritates his troubled vision. The incident inspires him to create a wiper blade mechanism modeled on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds rather than continuously.
With financial support from Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney
Dermot Mulroney
-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
), Kearns converts his basement into a laboratory and develops a prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
he tests in a fish tank before installing it in his car. He patents his invention and demonstrates it for Ford researchers, who had been working on a similar project without success. Kearns refuses to explain how his mechanism works until he hammers out a favorable deal with the corporation. Impressed with Kearns' results, executive Macklin Tyler (Mitch Pileggi
Mitch Pileggi
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell...
) asks him to prepare a business plan detailing the cost of the individual units, which Robert intends to manufacture himself. Considering this to be sufficient commitment from the company, he rents a warehouse he plans to use as a factory and forges ahead. He presents Ford with the pricing information it requested along with a sample unit, then waits for their response. Time passes, and when nobody contacts Robert, he begins placing phone calls that are never returned.
Frustrated, Kearns attends a Ford dealers convention at which the latest model of the Mustang
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...
is unveiled, promoting the intermittent wiper as a selling point. Realizing the company has used his idea without giving him credit or payment for it, Robert begins his descent into a despair so deep he boards a Greyhound bus
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
and heads for Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he apparently hopes to find legal recourse. Instead, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
state troopers remove him from the bus and escort him to a mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...
, where he is treated for a nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
. Finally released when doctors decide his obsession has subsided, he returns home a broken man, determined to receive public acknowledgement for his accomplishment. Thus begins years of legal battles, during which time his wife leaves him and he becomes estranged from his children.
At trial, Kearns represents himself after attorney Gregory Lawson (Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
) withdraws from the case because Robert refuses to settle
Settlement (law)
In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. The term "settlement" also has other meanings in the context of law.-Basis:...
. Eventually his ex-wife and offspring support him in his endeavor. Toward the end of the trial, Ford offers Kearns a $30 million settlement, but with no admission of wrongdoing. He decides to leave his fate in the hands of the jury, who determine that Ford infringed his patents, but that the infringement was not deliberate. The jury awards him $10.1 million. The closing credits indicate that Robert later wins an $18.7 million judgement from Chrysler Corporation as well.
Production
Marc Abraham, who previously had produced The Road to WellvilleThe Road to Wellville (film)
The Road to Wellville is a 1994 American comedy-drama film adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel of the same name, which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate John Harvey Kellogg and his methods as employed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium at the start of the 20th Century...
, Air Force One
Air Force One (film)
Air Force One is a 1997 American action-thriller film written by Andrew W. Marlowe and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It stars Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Glenn Close, and also features Xander Berkeley, William H. Macy, Dean Stockwell and Paul Guilfoyle...
, and Children of Men
Children of Men
Children of Men is a 2006 science fiction film loosely adapted from P. D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. In 2027, two decades of human infertility have left society on the brink of collapse. Illegal immigrants seek sanctuary in England, where the last...
, among many others, had long been drawn to the Robert Kearns saga for his directorial debut because the inventor believed more in fairness and honesty than the money offered to him to make him drop his lawsuit. "That's the reason I was passionate about it. It was about principle," the director said. "And principle is a very gray idea. And that's what I thought was exciting." He submitted numerous revisions of the screenplay to Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
chief Stacey Snider, who repeatedly told him, "This is not an easy script, and he's not a likable guy." Abraham believed what many might find unlikable in Kearns, with whom he consulted while developing the film, is what made him a distinctive character. When Universal underwent a change of management, the project finally was greenlit
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
.
The film was shot on location in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
The scene when Ford's new line of cars with the intermittent wiper is shown for the first time was shot in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is a performing arts venue in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Along with the Orpheum and the Vancouver Playhouse, it is one of three facilities operated by the Vancouver Civic Theatres Department .Formerly the home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, which...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.
The soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
includes "Too Many Fish In The Sea" by Liam Titcomb
Liam Titcomb
Liam Titcomb is a Canadian musician and actor. He released his self-titled album in 2005. He played the character Will in Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, and currently stars as Jones in the CBC Television drama Wild Roses.- Biography :Raised in Toronto and Hamilton, Liam was surrounded by music...
, "Green Onions
Green Onions
Green Onions is the debut album by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, released on Stax Records in October of 1962. It reached number 33 on the Pop Albums chart in the month of its release...
" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B band that was influential in shaping the sound of southern soul and Memphis soul. Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones , Steve Cropper , Lewie Steinberg , and Al Jackson, Jr....
, and "Tennessee Waltz" by Aaron Zigman.
The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
before going into theatrical release in the United States.
Cast
- Greg KinnearGreg KinnearGregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of...
..... Robert Kearns - Lauren GrahamLauren GrahamLauren Helen Graham is an American actress and producer. She is best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on the WB Network dramedy series Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.-Early life:...
..... Phyllis Kearns - Dermot MulroneyDermot Mulroney-Early life:Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Ellen, a housewife and amateur actress originally from Manchester, Iowa, and Michael Mulroney, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law, originally from Elkader, Iowa. He has a sister, Moira, and three brothers, Conor,...
..... Gil Previck - Alan AldaAlan AldaAlphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
..... Gregory Lawson - Mitch PileggiMitch PileggiMitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell...
..... Macklin Tyler - Bill SmitrovichBill Smitrovich-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
..... Judge Michael Franks - Tim KelleherTim KelleherTim Kelleher is an American writer, actor and director.Born in The Bronx, Tim grew up across the five boroughs of New York City, and played football with an elite corps of young men at perennial powerhouse Msgr. Farrell on Staten Island...
..... Charles Defao
Critical reception
As of August 9, 2009, Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported Flash of Genius has a 58% approval rating, based on 102 reviews.
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the film "a meticulously constructed mechanism, one that wants to convey the same mixture of idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
, obsession and paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
found in whistle-blower movies like Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
and The Insider
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
," but thought it "has the tone and texture of a well-made but forgettable television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
." He added "Flash of Genius would have been more gripping had it pinpointed events and conveyed the harrowing physical, emotional and financial cost of Kearns’s quest."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
said the film tells its story in "faithful and often moving detail." He added, "If it has a handicap, it's that Kearns was not a colorful character, more of a very stubborn man with tunnel vision
Tunnel vision
Tunnel vision is the loss of peripheral vision with retention of central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision.- Medical / biological causes :Tunnel vision can be caused by:...
.... Kinnear, often a player of light comedy, does a convincing job of making this quiet, resolute man into a giant slayer."
Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said the film's problem "is that it wants so desperately to be a Hollywood-style story of the little guy triumphing over the big guy that it races past much of the subtlety of Kearns' story, smoothing things out so that it wouldn't be a spoiler to reveal the ending (though I won't) because it's blatantly marching in from a mile away. Flash of Genius wants so much to be liked, even with its prickly, difficult hero, that it misses the mark of nonobviousness necessary not only for a patent, but also for a thrilling, original work."
Todd McCarthy of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
agreed with Olsen and Holden, describing the film as "very small potatoes in the cinematic annals of inspiring little-guy-fights-the-system melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s, to the point that it's a wonder it was thought to be strong bigscreen material; an old-style TV movie would have been more like it." He added, "Beyond the narrative shortcomings, the film is indifferently filmed, with uncustomarily flat visuals by cinematographer Dante Spinotti and listless pacing."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
said the biopic "is like watching Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the protagonist in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie...
keep trying, even after the 30th time Lucy
Lucy van Pelt
Lucille "Lucy" van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip :Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the main bully and the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is a crabby and cynical eight-year old girl, and often bullies the other characters in the strip,...
has pulled the football away. It's hard to tell whether Kearns is being noble or stupid, and halfway through the movie, most sane people in the audience will be rooting for him to give up his fight." He continued, "Marc Abraham has made a movie much like the Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
-as-plucky-homeless-guy drama The Pursuit of Happyness
The Pursuit of Happyness
Varèse Sarabande released the soundtrack on January 9, 2007, which included sixteen tracks.-Box office:The film debuted first at the North American box office, earning $27 million during its opening weekend and beating out heavily promoted films such as Eragon and Charlotte's Web...
, where two hours of suffering may or may not lead to a single triumphant moment. It's a similar experience to watching a 1-0 soccer game that is decided in overtime. Sure, absolutely nothing resembling feel-good entertainment happens in the first 90 minutes. But oh, that overtime goal ..."
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
rated the film three out of four stars and commented, "Kinnear takes the star spot in Flash of Genius and rides it to glory...Kearns wasn't a movie hero. His halting courtroom delivery lacked Hollywood histrionics. Kinnear plays him with blunt honesty, sagging under the weight of stress but maintaining a bulldog tenacity that would win the day. Was the battle worth it? Kearns' conflict is readable in Kinnear's every word and gesture. His performance is worth cheering."
Box office
The film opened on 1,098 screens in the US on October 3, 2008 and earned $2,251,075 on its opening weekend, ranking #11. It remained in theaters for only three weeks and eventually grossed $4,442,377 domestically and $183,673 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $4,626,050.DVD release
The film was released on DVD on February 17, 2009. It is in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with audio tracks in English and Spanish and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. Bonus features include commentary by Marc Abraham and deleted scenes.