Director: Bill Condon
Writer: Bill Condon
Stars: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Chris O'Donnell
Love is the answer, isn't it? But, sex raises a lot of very interesting questions...
"Sex is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other."
-Marquis de Sade
Sex.
I've been told, many times, that along with money, it's what rules this world. “Kinsey” follows the story of the researcher Alfred Kinsey, a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.
He intends to help people, as at the beginning of his marriage to one of the students Mac (Academy Award nomination for Laura Linney). After that Kinsey and Mac's marriage started to benefit a lot from sex, but what I liked about their relationship was how close and respectful they were for each other without it. They had incredibly strong bond, one that reminded me of Russel Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in “A Beautiful Mind” (“Kinsey” is by the way, infinitely better movie), except for the fact Mac was far more understanding and calm. Here is the marriage based on utter honesty. No wonder it worked out well.
Kinsey is portraited as quiet but humorous man who at first was a biologist and did a meticulous study about wasps, in which no one was interested in. He is shown as ordinary man, but a man with great passion and the quest of telling the society the truth. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way he cannot see that there is too much resistance from the others and too much pride in him. Although he didn't succeed in his farther publications, the movie features amazing scene where a woman tells him that after reading his book she decided to tell her friend she loved her and now they live together happily. Because of Kinsey some things changed. But even now, as I type these words, 62 years after publication of his book, there is still so much intolerance in the world. And people still show unhealthy and dangerous interest in something very intimate – who is sleeping with whom and how they do it?
The movie is quite courageous at the beginning and has a lot of great lines (“Everybody's sin is nobody's sin, and everybody's crime is no crime at all. “), it doesn't show Kinsey in crystal clear light – for his research he interviewed pedophiles and didn't report them to the police. There is a lot of talking about sex, most of which I'm sure all of you already heard and known. But to see the people who were unaware of this and now find out about, it's especially impressive, because those are adults, engaged couples, middle aged people.
Kinsey has entire team that helps him - Clyde( Peter Sarsgaard ), who will end up in the bed of both Mr and Mrs Kinsey and Wardell (Chirs O'Donnell) among others. As the studies progress the more extreme it gets – Kinsey films sexual intercourse between the team members and other people. The movie doesn't give you any hints as to what your opinion should be. It's up to you – how much can we sacrifice for the research? Where is the line?
This is one of the best performances given by Liam Neeson, who never gave bad performance. I'm shocked, that quite bland Linney got the nomination and he didn't. He is one of those actors who deserve highest honors in the movie world. He makes Kinsey both pleasant and interesting and at the same time the viewer questions whether what he does is good or not. It's not easy – Kinsey does mistakes, ambition blinds him a little. But thanks to Neeson even during the interview with pedophile Kinsey remains incredibly human and professional as a researcher.
That movie actually frightened me. To know there were people, so many people, unaware of so many things concerning sex is horrifying. At one point of the movie the woman actually asks “Will I be infertile from wearing high heels?”. I'm well aware that there are still people out there, who are either too uneducated or too scared or maybe just shy to discover that aspect of their life and to understand it. Because once you understand it and in case of sex the more you know, the less frustrated you are. But don't worry - the film is not heavy, it has a lot of funny moments.
The movie's third act apart from previously mentioned touching scene is quite weak. The director clearly didn't know what to do next and from thought provoking movie the film turns into formulaic biographical movie. But in the end, it redeems itself. I heard opinion some people are unable to watch entire film because of all the sex talk. I'm surprised by that, after all it's the movie about sex researcher what did you expect? It's definitely worth watching for fans of good biographical films and Liam Neeson.
74/100
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