TORONTO - Greg Kinnear is the first to admit that, at first blush, a two-hour film dealing with the intermittent windshield wiper may strike some as "innocuous."
But the wiper technology -- which allows for pauses between strokes so that just the right amount of rain is swept away -- sets the stage for what's really a tale of unrelenting tenacity in the face of the American Dream gone wrong.
"Flash of Genius," based on a New Yorker article about real-life engineering professor Robert Kearns's years-long legal battle against Ford, has at its core something everyone should be able to relate to -- the need to be recognized for your work, says Kinnear.
"What I liked about this script was, the idea of the intermittent windshield wiper seemed so innocuous to me," the actor said Friday in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival where the film is being screened.
"But I think for anybody who creates, and we kind of all do, you want to own it, you want it to be yours."
Kinnear portrays Kearns, a father of six who in the late '60s hit upon a solution for a technology all the automakers had been chasing. Wipers up to that point were either on full-tilt, squeaking across the windshield in light rain, or off.
"Obviously, it's a cool device that literally everyone is familiar with," Kinnear said of the intermittent wiper.
"Getting recognition for that idea would become more important (to Kearns) than whatever the idea could have provided him with in terms of money."
In the film, Kearns's invention catches the attention of Ford. The auto giant says it wants to do business with him, takes receipt of a prototype, then promptly informs him they're no longer interested.
When next year's model of the Mustang appears with an intermittent wiper, Kearns's battle begins -- one that will take an enormous toll on his family and marriage.
The Detroit-based academic's overwhelming commitment to the wiper sees him, at an early point in the film, absent-mindedly rebuff the amorous advances of his wife, played by Lauren Graham of TV's "Gilmore Girls."
As the parents of six children, alone time had to be at a premium for Kearns and his wife, but he toils through the night in the basement to crack the wiper problem.
Another scene at the outset lets the viewer know just what Kearns will be up against when Ford walks away with his invention. The priest giving the Sunday sermon makes mention of the auto industry magnates in the congregation and likens them to Christ's apostles.
This is a town where cars are religion and you don't take on the holy trinity of the Big Three.
But Kearns believes in the American Dream -- that anyone with an idea and determination can make a better life and reap the financial rewards of free enterprise.
"It's the American Dream gone terribly wrong," Kinnear said.
Kearns also believes in family, calling his brood his board of directors and drawing his eldest sons into the invention of the wiper.
After Ford cancels the deal, one of the first concerns out of Kearns's mouth is: "What about my family?"
The film wants you to believe in this David's decency as he takes on the Goliath that is Ford.
The real-life Kearns won multimillion-dollar judgments against both Ford and Chrysler after representing himself in court. His death in 2005 was widely reported in stories casting him as the inventor of the intermittent windshield -- the recognition he so fervently fought for.
"I think that's such an important message, that it's people who ultimately come up with ... the things around us," said Kinnear.
"People should not be marginalized in that."
