Greg Kinnear's excellent performances may get taken for granted, not just because of his matinee-idol handsomeness but also because of his subtle acting. He is not an Al Pacino-Kevin Spacey-Dustin Hoffman scenery-chewing kind of performer, but one whose specialty has become finding complexities in a broad range of likeable everyday characters. Now he plays another in Flash of Genius, the true story—get ready—of the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper and had his invention stolen.
Pictured: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.
The movie, a classic David vs. Goliath story, begins in the mid-1960s when Kinnear, as Bob Kearns—a college professor and mechanical engineer—has the idea ( the flash of genius ) one rainy afternoon that windshield wipers should have more than two speeds. Back at home in his workshop, away from his adoring kids and patient wife ( Lauren Graham ) , Kearns tinkers around until he's successful. Living in Detroit, home of the big three auto manufacturers, Kearns seems to be in the right place at the right time. Ford agrees to take a look at his invention and seems ready to climb aboard, even agreeing to Kearns' intention to manufacture the wipers himself.
But then Ford backs out of the deal and Kearns, having spent thousands, is financially busted. Worse, he discovers that Ford has bypassed his operation and installed his invention in their automobiles. ( The scene during a glittery auto-show display in front of Ford reps is the visual highlight of the film. ) Broken but not beaten, Kearns vows to fight. But in a company town, the odds are stacked against him and, soon, friends and family are put to the test. The stolen idea hits him so badly it literally drives him crazy and he ends up in a nuthouse. 'It's not about money. It's about right and wrong,' Kearns says over and over for 12 years, leaving his marriage in shambles as he continues to fight, defending himself in court and eventually enlisting his children to help him with his legal research.
Eventually—this being a movie in the mold of A Civil Defense, Erin Brockovich, The Astronaut Farmer and dozens more—we know that Kearns is going to triumph over his naysayers, but the familiarity of the story doesn't make it any less satisfying. Producer Marc Abraham makes his directing debut with the film and, working with a script told in bold strokes, manages to elicit strong portrayals from his actors. Oddly, though all the characters repeatedly express frustration over Kearns' intractability, he never seems difficult to the audience. Although Flash of Genius is easily Kinnear's movie all the way, here is a character where, ironcially, a tad more vinegar and scenery-chewing as well as a little less of Kinnear's likeability and acting subtlety would have helped separate it from the herd of other David vs. Goliath movies and given it that extra spark of originality—a flash of genius, as it were.
Teen nerd extraordinaire Michael Cera ( Superbad, Juno ) and pretty Kat Demmings ( The 40-Year-Old Virgin ) , with her Liv Tyler pouty lips, are the stars of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, a big-screen adaptation of gay author David Levithan's teen novel. The movie follows high school seniors Nick ( Cera ) and Norah ( Demmings ) through a series of typical teen hijinks one crazy night in Manhattan. The picture's a bit of a miracle: a blissful combination of hip, up-to-the-minute teen-speak and attitudes, and a slice of urban teen life writ large. Nick & Norah, though a bit too long, nevertheless has got the goods to speak to the FaceBook/MySpace/YouTube crowd in the way that Fame, Dazed & Confused, Billy Jack and American Graffiti spoke to previous generations.
The plot has the characters careening through Manhattan in the way that the Fame kids did; the city is seen as an opportunity for adventure, a playground to be enthusiastically explored. The plot boils down to this: Nick, the only straight member of a queercore band ( The Jerk Offs ) , is still depressed over the break-up with his girlfriend and doesn't see that Norah, who likes him from afar, is The One. After a raucous night, the attempts of the other characters ( especially Nick's bandmates ) to bring these two together finally pays off. The two gay band members and the lead singer's hunky hook-up, who tool around in a van, are presented as the most efficient, level-headed, cool characters in the movie. Mooning over his lost love, Nick moans to them, 'You don't know what it's like to be straight. It's awful'—a line that draws one of the biggest laughs from the audience.
Throughout, there's none of the usual derision leveled at any of the gay characters ( at one point Nick describes his haircut lovingly as the 'Ellen DeGeneres' ) , and when the characters want to do something hip and cool they head for a drag-queen holiday extravaganza. The one character who hurls a somewhat homophobic remark—Norah's 'sorta' boyfriend—is the villain of the movie, and is quickly derided by the others.
None of the 'adults' quite gets these movies like the teens they're made for, but that doesn't mean we can't still appreciate them. ( Though, to be honest, it's hard to look at these characters with their wised-up, all-knowing stances as teenagers. ) And if Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ( which also has one of the hottest song soundtracks of the year ) truly represents the values and attitudes of the young 'uns, then I say, 'Let's put 'em in charge right now.'
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also ordering information on my book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
