Review of Flash of Genius (2008) by Philip S — 05 Mar 2012

I thought I was going to really like this movie. I really wanted to like it. I thought it'd be frustrating and make me mad at big business. Yeah, well, not so much. It's ok, don't get me wrong, but it's far from perfect.

The story starts off well, but lags quite a bit in the middle. The ending is surprisingly pedestrian. The material is there - a good cast, a David vs Goliath story - but I found myself not really caring about Bob or his mission for justice.

It seemed, well, crazy. I felt far more sympathy for his wife, family and lawyer. Even Ford seemed sympathetic after a while. Maybe if they had spent more time fleshing out the characters and less time on the wipers.

Like with the "blinking eye" it feels like we're just going round and round with brief pauses in between. Is the movie wasted material? Or are windshield wipers just not that interesting? Or was Bob's case just not convincing? Maybe a bit of each.

It's not a bad movie, just not a good one. Could have been better scripted, I think.