Flash of genius

THROUGHOUT this passably diverting drama, I constantly found myself glancing over my shoulder to check if the cat was weeing in the aspidistra. During the occasional longeurs, I was almost overcome with the desire to boil the kettle and check what's happening on Deal or No Deal.

Where is this going? Well, Flash of Genius, the true story of how one stubborn inventor humiliated the Ford Motor Company, is so reminiscent of a TV movie that every time a door opens you half- expect Morgan Fairchild to make an entrance.

It’s quite a good TV movie, mind. If you were skulking at home one afternoon and you encountered Greg Kinnear inventing a new windscreen wiper – the sort that halts between wipes – then you would certainly continue watching and, though you might wish the film 20 minutes shorter, you wouldn’t feel you’d wasted your time.

The real Dr Robert Kearns made the mistake of showing his prototype to Ford before he had the cheque in his wallet. Some months later, the firm declared that it was not interested in the device, but, to Kearns’s fury, it subsequently released a car with an “intermittent windshield wiper” that looked very like his. It took 12 years of protracted litigation before the inventor, now representing himself, finally got to put his case in a court of law.

The story is pretty interesting, and the underrated Kinnear makes something believable of the hero’s weepy frustration and brief descent into mental illness. Alan Alda – is it good Alan or evil Alan? – also does some sterling work as a high-flying attorney. But there is nothing in

the workmanlike script, bland cinematography or drab production design to set Flash of Genius aside from the likes of I Married an Anorexic Hitman.

Hang on. Isn't Penelope Keith in Dictionary Cornerthis week?

Directed by Marc Abraham. Starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Alan Alda, Bill Smitrovich, Tim Kelleher PG cert, lim release, 119 min ***