"Flash of Genius"

Hmmm... where have we seen this story before?

"Flash of Genius" reminded me of Aaron Sorkin's ("The West Wing") terrific Broadway play "The Farnsworth Invention," about a rural boy genius who invents television, only to have the idea stolen by RCA.

The film is, essentially, "Erin Brockovich" or "A Civil Action." There is no denying that the man-against-the-machine narrative carries tremendous weight and inherent drama, regardless of the object being contested.

Of course, in "The Farnsworth Invention" the principal character was portrayed as having LOST the litigation that he actually won.  I guess that's one way to make a production more unpredictable.