Kinsey (2004)

One of the best films of 2004, Kinsey pays tribute to the flawed but honorable man who revolutionized our understanding of human sexuality. As played by Liam Neeson in writer-director Bill Condon's excellent film biography, Indiana University researcher Alfred Kinsey was so consumed by statistical measurements of human sexual activity that he almost completely overlooked the substantial role of emotions and their effect on human behavior. This made him an ideal researcher and science celebrity who revealed that sexual behaviors previously considered deviant and even harmful (homosexuality, oral sex, etc.) are in fact common and essentially normal in the realm of human experience, but whose obsession with scientific method frequently placed him at odds with his understanding wife (superbly played by Laura Linney) and research assistants. In presenting Kinsey as a driven social misfit, Condon's film gives Neeson one of his finest roles while revealing the depth of Kinsey's own humanity, and the incalculable benefit his research had on our collective sexual enlightenment. With humor, charm, and intelligence, Kinsey shines a light where darkness once prevailed. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

To Some a Hero, To Others a Villain...

but it can't be denied that Dr. Alfred Kinsey made some important contributions in our understanding of Sexuality. This movie probably glosses over and rounds off some of the hard edges of the man and his work.

Liam Neeson and Laura Linney play their parts superbly. What struck me the most about this film was the way Kinsey doggedly and dogmatically went about his research-perfecting it in every way as the years went by. His first volume "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was probably accepted better than his follow-up "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" because America was a little more apt to admit that the men were, well just being men. But when histories came out about women, it was shocking and scandalous. I mean, didn't people think that females were so very different than men? While I do believe there are subtle nuances between the two sexes, I think we are probably more alike than we like to admit, whether in 1948 or 2008.

If Kinsey pushed the door open half-way with his work, the sexual revolution of the 1960's and the discovery of the birth control pill smashed it to pieces. And where are we today? I think it is a mixed bag. Certainly to be more comfortable with our bodies, feelings etc., is a good thing. Also the obnoxious moralizing from the Victorian era is largely a thing of the past. By and large we seem more comfortable with ourselves. We now know of the agendas of the closed-minded people who claimed to speak under the seal and shield of God and did so with authoritarian bigotry and for the most part, impunity.

Yet we still exploit sex and do it more than we ever have. We act as if it is not that big a deal and thereby trivialize it. If there is anything to learn from the film and from Kinsey himself, it's that the controls must come from inside. No attempt to legislate, engender guilt or shame, or any other force without is ultimately successful. Sex can greatly and supremely enhance a person's life or destroy it.

With Kinsey, science met humanity and it seemed a perfect marriage. Yet, it still left some residual discomfort that is being felt to this day. I think this movie says to us, "Don't shoot the messenger." Kinsey simply shed light on a 'taboo' subject. Was his research skewed? That is argued to this day. Was it mostly accurate? I would say probably yes. But ultimately, can we ever know with any certainty what goes on in our neighbor's head/bedrooms?

Kinsey's work probably appealed to the voyeur inherent in a lot of people. I am sure it liberated some people who desparately needed it. In other cases I think it probably gave a certain 'license' to those who live on the fringe of society such as sex abusers, the emotionally unstable, and the libertine. But with an atmosphere that was present in the late 1800's and early 1900's, who can blame everyday people for wanting to throw off the shackles of igornance and Puritanism? Doctors-men of science dispensed some of the most idiotic and dangerous advice under the guise of keeping people 'pure.' Today, all but the most ignorant and rabid fundamentalists accept the role of sex in a well-rounded person.

When viewing this movie, remember the context and the frame of time in which it was set. In some ways it is charmingly naive, and in others very frank and 'in your face.' As Kinsey said, "Love is the ultimate answer, but in the meantime, sex raises some very interesting questions." Yes, indeed. April 22, 2008

Two-Disc DVD Set Showcases How the Sexual Revolution Began in a Fascinating Biopic

Since its publication sixty years ago, the first Kinsey Report (real title: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male) has taken on mythic proportions for its groundbreaking look at never-before-examined human sexual habits. Dr. Alfred Kinsey is certainly worthy of a film biopic, and writer-director Bill Condon embraces the idea with a healthy respect for his subject, a strong sense of period atmosphere, and the same wry sense of humor he displayed in his fanciful James Whale tale, Gods and Monsters. Condon effectively uses as a black-and-white framing device, the preparation for the interview process by which Kinsey and his staff surveyed people about their sexual habits. The director shows how Kinsey painstakingly teaches his research team how to get their hundreds of interview subjects to open up and speak freely about their sexual histories and as a result, revolutionized the way we think about sex. The 2004 film doesn't shy away from the double standards that exist to this day regarding the candor and explicitness of Kinsey's findings.

What resonates most is how Kinsey strove to break down barriers and taboos and social conventions, while continuing to be a flashpoint for the religious right as the instigator of the sexual revolution and the downfall of morality. The acting by the two leads is superb and unexpected. Liam Neeson gives a fierce and fearless performance in the title role, an obsessive-compulsive biologist who doesn't bat an eyelash when he translates the methodology he used in studying gall wasps into his forbidding survey of human sexuality. Neeson pitches his characterization between eccentric and megalomaniac and lets the doctor's maddening genius pour out of him without caution. As his plainspoken wife, Clara McMillen, Laura Linney imbues what could have been a passive role with a searching intelligence as she willingly stands by her brilliant husband but not without injecting her own sensibilities into their marriage. She and Neeson manage a terrific rapport based on a mutual respect and intellectual fascination. They play out their first sexual experience with honesty and conviction, though truthfully, both are way too long in the tooth to be credible as college students early in the story.

Peter Sarsgaard gives a subtle, often incisive portrayal of Clyde Martin, the bisexual researcher who successfully seduces both Kinsey and his wife but ultimately falters when he marries and finds his wife cheating on him. As Clyde's fellow research colleagues, Chris O'Donnell is the swaggering Wardell Pomeroy and Timothy Hutton is the slick, mustachioed Paul Gebhard, but neither leaves that much of an impression since their characters are designed as male archetypes rather than full-blooded characters. Oliver Platt plays his usually facile, comic self as Kinsey's one consistent supporter, Indiana University president Herman Wells, especially when Kinsey's work became too notorious for public figures to become sponsors or even to associate with him. Tim Curry seems to be making fun of his own Rocky Horror past by playing an uptight professor jealous of Kinsey's success. In little more than cameo roles that turn into memorable turns, the film includes William Sadler as a sexual satyr, John McMartin as philanthropist Huntington Hartford and Lynn Redgrave as a lesbian thankful to Kinsey for his research.

The one presumptive flaw of the film is the expectation that the viewer is already aware of the full historical context of Kinsey's work. More exposition would have been helpful. The weakest scenes, however, are the predictably drawn flashbacks to Kinsey's childhood, when he experienced an unfulfilled crush on an Eagle Scout, masturbated in shame, and eventually left home in rebellion against a brutally puritanical father. The father is played with fire-and-brimstone fury by John Lithgow, who seems to be channeling the same role he played in Footloose twenty years ago. The scene where he reveals his own sexual secrets years later with his son seems particularly contrived. The film also falters somewhat during the darker denouement after Kinsey falls ill. Regardless, the primary story is successful in stirring passion and sparking debate just exactly Kinsey would have wanted.

The two-disc 2005 DVD set offers solid extras. Disc One provides the film along with an optional commentary from Condon. He is informative without being pedantic about not only the topic, especially the inhibitions that exist to this day about sex, but also the complexities of the production. The centerpiece of Disc Two is the ninety-minute documentary, "The Kinsey Report: Sex on Film". It is admittedly comprehensive delving into specifics about Kinsey, his research institute, the production, and of course, sex. There are 21 deleted scenes, some quite fascinating, that amount to the length of a second film. Also included are a brief gag reel, theatrical and teaser trailers for the movie, a tour of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, and a 45-question interactive sex questionnaire. Highly recommended despite its flaws for anyone interested in how the so-called sexual revolution started. April 6, 2008

Puritan America's sexual awakening through Kinsey...

It never occurred to me that watching a film about Dr. Kinsey would be like watching a dry documentary about a fascinating subject. That's the impression one can get from the opening scenes--but fortunately, the film improves as it goes on.

The film is structured as a series of vignettes based on the sort of questions that were posed in the Kinsey Report which was widely read and published in the '50s--and to some degree it works. We see how Kinsey himself came to regard sex and the study of it.

JOHN LITHGOW is his puritan, uptight father ("The decline of the Roman Empire was due to too frequent use of bathing"), revealed through questions posed by CHRIS O'DONNELL and TIMOTHY HUTTON as Kinsey workers being trained to ask the probing questions. LIAM NEESON has the title role as the professor with the bold teaching methods unafraid to talk about sex. LAURA LINNEY is the forthright student who encounters Kinsey at college and forms a relationship with him. She's a brilliant scholar, a free thinker with a profound love of nature.

Unfortunately, watching some of the scenes unfold are like watching paint dry despite sincere performances by Neeson and Linney who hold the story together. The first awkward sexual experience between Neeson and Linney in marriage is almost painfully awkward and unsettling to watch. We realize while watching the early portions of the film that we were really in the dark about sexuality until Kinsey boldly brought forth talk about masturbation, homosexuality, oral sex, etc., which all were taboo subjects that kept everyone in the dark until his study was released.

Despite all the graphic sex talk, the film itself manages to be rather more dry than might be expected--and preachy, at that, when dealing with the regulations that governed sexual conduct in the 1950s and long before we treated sex as candidly as we do today in the media.

But it has to be commended for making a strong point about raising a significant question: What is normal? Until "The Kinsey Report" came out, nobody had the foggiest idea, so enormous was his contribution. Everybody read the report to find out if they were normal! We've come a long way since then. There's a lot to be said for the kind of enlightenment that came with "the report" that took most Americans out of the dark ages.

But oddly enough, with all the sex talk, the film is largely non-stimulating. Too bad there weren't more scenes like the one between JOHN LITHGOW and LIAM NEESON when Neeson convinces his father to be a subject for his report. OLIVIER PLATT gives a good performance as a fellow scientist and all of the supporting roles are well played by a fine cast. Nice work by LYNN REDGRAVE as a woman who, thanks to Kinsey, realizes she's not the only woman in the world to experience Lesbian tendencies and find fulfillment with a woman. And PETER SARSGAARD is wonderful as the bisexual who shares a torrid kissing scene with Neeson.

Summing up: Uneven film has many moments of truth leading up to publication of "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male"--and later, an equally well read study of the female--which became huge best-sellers and delivered a lot of folks from a life of ignorance about a topic dearest to their hearts.

February 18, 2008

Interesting and informative

Watching this film, I couldn't help but wonder if people really were that ignorant so not very long ago. It just seems so odd and unbelievable. But maybe because I didn't grow up that way, in that prudish time. It also seems to me, that if it were not for this man Kinsey, then alot of people would have remained igonrant for quite a while. Liam Neeson is unabashed and perfect for this role. He loses himself in it and its quite believable. Laura Linney is also quite good as his faithful and understanding wife. They really make it work onscreen. Because of them, it makes the film watchable because, though the topic is somewhat riské, the movie is a bit dull at times. But those actors really shine and because of that, I was still able to enjoy the film and get a good sense of who Kinsey was and what it was like during that era. February 18, 2008

Lacking in subtlety

Kinsey bears a striking resemblance to Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind: both are biopic's of controversial historical figures whose single minded pursuit of the "truth" in their chosen fields went against the grain of social convention; both are simplistic, overly sentimental accounts designed as much to tug at the audience's heart strings as to paint a balanced portrait of a complex figure.

Liam Neeson is solid in the lead role as Alfred Kinsey, the man who revolutionised what we know of, and how we view, sex in the western world, while Laura Linney is excellent as his loving, long-suffering wife.

The film shows us Kinsey's formative years being brought up by an overbearing and puritanical father, which lead to a certain lack of social grace and empathy for others in later life, when he becomes an expert etomologist. Kinsey's lack of sexual experience leads to a disastrous wedding night, and he realises that there is almost no scientific material on human sexual practice. This, coupled to a realisation that being an expert on wasps isn't likely to lead to widespread scientific acclaim, is the lightbulb moment when he decides his life's work should be to collect data on human sexuality - starting with students of his sex education college class.

I found the almost universal willingness of Kinsey's subjects to reveal all about their sex lives without so much as blushing, difficult to believe. Bearing in mind this was the conservative 1940s and no such exercise had ever been undertaken, many people would undoubtedly find such personal questions highly embarassing and even immoral. I also found the ease with which Kinsey persuades both his College and the Rockefeller Foundation to support and fund his studies just a little too convenient. As the film goes on to show, Kinsey's work led to a good deal of controversy which I can't believe wasn't there at the outset.

Bill Condon's direction is somewhat simplistic (for instance the montage scenes of talking heads juxtaposed onto a map of the USA) and his characterisation a little shallow, while the script is no more than adequate - some of the dialogue jars, especially the scene of Kinsey's family openly discussing sex at the dinner table, to the disgust of his son.

Neeson is a fine actor, but ultimately Kinsey doesn't give him the opportunity to show much subtlety and nuance in a fairly one-dimensional portait of an important 20th century figure.
November 5, 2007

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