UK Film Network

After an already impressive career as a film producer of pictures such as  Children of Men , Dawn of the Dead  and The Family Man,  Marc Abraham makes his directing debut with a classic  ‘David versus Goliath’ tale.

Flash of Genius is the story of Bob Kearns, and engineering professor in Detroit who invents things for the love of engineering, and also to strike it lucky one day for his ever-growing family.

 Kearns hits on an idea to make a windscreen wiper work like an eye. He teams up with a long time friend, and produces a patent which they take to Ford.
Up until this time Ford’s engineers have failed to breakthrough with the invention.
After initial talks with Ford and an agreement reached, production commences on the intermittent windshield wiper. However shortly after this, Ford pulls out of the deal saying they are no longer interested.

Unfortunately for Kearns, he discovers those nasty car moguls pinched his idea and installed the intermittent wiper on all their new models.

 Then begins the fight to get back his invention and to prove that Ford copied the prototypes and force the company to admit that it stole the idea.

This fight has its price. Kearns happy marriage and his relationships with his children are changed irrevocably.

Greg Kinnear as Bob Kearns gives a largely sympathetic portrayal of a man who was widely known as one of the most suspicious and litigious inventors.

In life Bob Kearns was an irascible character sometimes very difficult to deal with.

He got through four lawyers over the period of time he conducted his case against Ford, and at times required his children to help him with paralegal work.

Though his family life suffered, Kearns determination to win against the big guys became an urban legend in inventor circles, in particular for those that  had been stolen from and failed to win their case.

Abraham has been faithful to the story, consulting with Kearn’s himself before his death in 2005 and then with his family.
 
 His poetic licence has been to tell the story over 12 years rather than over 25, the actual time it took to get Ford to court.

It’s an entertaining piece of film making which shows an insight into the lengths to which big car corporations in the 1960s through to the 1980s went to silence their detractors.

The triumph of Kearns win  gives heart to anyone who has had their work stolen, but it also tells the tale of the human cost, especially  when companies do wrong and people must make right.


http://www.flashofgenius.net/