Review of Flash of Genius (2008) by Toby E — 03 Mar 2009

I want to get back to writing my thoughts on films as I watch them or study them. Here's a great place to start. "Flash of Genius" on the surface is the story of a man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper, or as he puts it a wiper "that blinks like your eye.

" Not too exciting, since 145 million cars today have this wiper. But this movie is so much more than just plot, and therefore, I feel, a great film to study for any aspiring screenwriter. The writing structure is so sound and visibly on display as a model of how a screenplay and its characters should be constructed.

Take Mr. Kearns, the main character, for example. A man whose expertise is his engineering skills, his victimization is that his idea was stolen by Ford, and his flaw is his nature to rapidly push for the correct answer, while in the process pushing his family away.

His want, or external need, is to be recognized for his invention, whether that puts a penny in his pocket or not. His need, I believe, is to achieve that recognition "with" his children by his side.

Not until the last scene of the movie, when he has won the case after 12 years, and he's sitting in the diner, listening to his children and they sound like a family unit once again, that he has achieved a much more meaningful victory.

The "Kearns corporation" as he calls it in a touching, early scene when his sons help him realize the invention, and they drive around town in the rain, the entire family stuffed one car, celebrating a family achievement.

He would have never been happy, even had he won the case, if he had won it alone. And that to me is the reason why anyone who wants to master the art of building a screenplay should take a good look at this simple, yet touching film.

It's what Robert McKee would call the "Archplot." External conflicts, a definitive ending, one protagonist, etc. The movie's worth a look if you're like I am, trying to unlock the mysteries that make a great screenplay what it is.

Again, on the surface, it's a simple, touching film, a "David vs. Goliath" if you will. Some people will be entertained, others bored. But as a screenwriter myself, I appreciated it on a different level.