Sentences you never thought you'd type: Greg Kinnear's performance is what elevates "Flash of Genius" beyond its mediocre trappings.

Yes, that Greg Kinnear, paragon of handsome-faced blandness in so many romantic comedies. He's been good in films like "Little Miss Sunshine," yet more often than not he shows up as the safe love interest in fare such as "Baby Mama."

Here he plays Bob Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper in his basement and then had his creation stolen by Ford. The film, based on a true story, follows Kearns as he doggedly nips at the automaker's heels in a legal struggle that took years and cost him almost everything. Kinnear captures both the distracted-genius absentmindedness of a man inspired and the crumbling psyche of a man possessed. It's easily Kinnear's best performance in years, maybe ever.

The film establishes Kearns' character from the first scene, set inside a Catholic church where he serves as an usher, his ever-expanding family sitting in the pews. Next we learn that Kearns is an engineering professor; his first lecture to his class is about ethics.

Inspired by a cork in the eye (really), Kearns cracks what the automakers can't -- the secret to the intermittent wiper. He and his backer, Gil (Dermot Mulroney, unrecognizable and excellent), take his invention to Ford, in hopes that the company will put the device in their cars, but let Kearns manufacture it.

Suddenly Ford loses interest. Just as suddenly, Mustangs show up with intermittent wipers. Lauren Graham doesn't have much to do as Kearns' long-suffering wife. Alan Alda, meanwhile, is quite good as a lawyer whose patience is tried and broken by Kearns' bullheadedness. But the film belongs to Kinnear.

- By Bill Goodykoontz / Gannett chief film critic

Flash of Genius

Rating: 2 and a half stars (out of four)

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Bill Smitrovich, Tim Kelleher.

Running time: 119 minutes.

Rated: PG-13; brief strong language.