- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
100It's exhilarating in an authentic, pathos-streaked way to see Kearns, through Greg Kinnear's inspired characterization of a wary obsessive, representing himself during his trial against Ford Motor Co. for stealing his design.
-
91An uncompromising and ultimately chilling look at individual creativity trampled by corporate greed, and its timing could not be more appropriate.
-
75Kearns' conflict is readable in Kinnear's every word and gesture. His performance is worth cheering.
-
75Alda gives the film's strongest performance. Kinnear, often a player of light comedy, does a convincing job of making this quiet, resolute man into a giant slayer.
-
75Kinnear does what he's done in the past: You underestimate the guy's acting chops, and suddenly, strikingly, he floors you.
-
75An enjoyable way to start the Oscar season.
-
75It's a smart movie for grownups, an increasingly rare commodity.
-
70That movie is not half bad, either. The trial, by comparison, will feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched any David take on any corporate Goliath before a court of law ("Erin Brockovich," "A Civil Action," etc., etc.).
-
67The individual components of director Marc Abraham's David-and-Goliath drama are roundly unexceptional; the script, soft and teach-y; the performances, earnest.
-
63The flaws of Flash of Genius are worth putting up with for Kinnear's committed performance.
-
63The courtroom scenes emphasize the movie's potency as a David and Goliath saga. But the film's strength lies in its fact-based story of a wronged man turned crusader, played with vigor by Kinnear.
-
63In short, Flash of Genius fails to make viewers care with any depth about the story it's telling.
-
63The problem with Flash of Genius is that a windshield wiper is an awfully thin mechanism on which to hang a feature movie.
-
60It's not a lightning show, but "Flash" still shines.
-
58No matter how noble, not everyone's life should be made into a movie.
-
It's also solidly constructed throughout and the acting is impeccable. The problem is that it just lumbers along for two solid hours, never rising to any significant emotional or philosophical heights.
-
50The problem with Flash of Genius isn't that the subject is dull but that the movie is.
-
Maybe he was a sucker, but it was his belief in the fundamental decency of American institutions that made his struggle for redemption so winning, much more so than the movie that was made to honor it.
-
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.
-
50It has the tone and texture of a well-made but forgettable television movie.
-
50Moderately inspiring in the way such true-life stories of "the indomitable human spirit" are always constructed to be.
-
50The cast is excellent--especially Kinnear, who's perfected his wounded everyman persona--and Marc Abraham's direction is elegant and understated. But their work is seriously undermined by the skeletal script.
-
40The role is ill-suited for Kinnear's talents. Abraham's pacing is glacial, the cinematography is flat, the score by Jill Savitt is suited better to a supermarket and then there's the fact that the climax can be seen coming a mile away. Maybe the biggest, though, is its failure to play fair with the audience.
-
40Mr. Kinnear is fine; he's an actor we always like, and he gives a skillful, heartfelt performance. The problem is the material -- dramatic in the describing but painfully predictable in the telling.
-
Greg Kinnear, usually kinetic, is unusually (and unbearably) dull.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 8 out of 10
-
Mixed: 1 out of 10
-
Negative: 1 out of 10
-
AdamL.9
-
BobW8Not flashy, but an engrossing story with good performances. Literate, simple, and enjoyable.