Tomorrow is Marathon #13 – the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Bar Harbor, Maine. As part of my pre-marathon tradition, Amy and I relax at a movie the day before. Today’s was Flash of Genius at the awesome Reel Pizza Cinerama .
Flash of Genius is the story of Robert Kearns , the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper. It’s a tragedy in three acts.
- Act 1: Invention and hopefulness that ends in betrayal.
- Act 2: The hero encounters increasing difficulties, complications, and losses.
- Act 3: Triumph and redemption.
While I’m deeply anti-software-patent, I’m equally pro-inventor. The Kearns story – at least what I know of it from the great 1993 New Yorker article titled The Flash of Genius – is a complicated and provocative one. Greg Kinnear is brilliant as Robert Kearns and plays the dedicated and single-minded investor magnificently.
If you are ever in Bar Harbor and like watching movies, definitely have dinner (and a movie) at Reel Pizza Cinerama . The Manchurian Candidate pizza was a winner. Now, time to get my head into the marathon.