Tastefully Capturing Man Who Lifted The Lid On Sex

Sun Herald

Sunday January 16, 2005

Rob Lowing

KINSEY

Rated: MA

Starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, John Lithgow, Timothy Hutton.

Critic's warning: Occasional language, sex scenes, full-frontal nudity.

Critic's rating: 8/10

ALTHOUGH it is a sturdy rather than riveting biography, Kinsey deserves marks for tackling a tricky subject tastefully and unflinchingly.

The movie examines the life of Alfred Kinsey, famed 1940s author of the first definitive and revolutionary study into the sexual habits of American men and women.

As expected, the story focuses on Kinsey's research, which included photographs and filming of bedroom intimacies, and his pioneering interviewing methods, which poignantly exposed the ignorance of many post-World War II Americans: "Can I get syphilis from a whistle?"

It is a credit to director Bill Condon and his cast, notably Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, that the film is affectionate, poignant and funny often all at once without being ribald or sensational.

Their impeccably produced period piece works hard to set the scene, skilfully incorporating Kinsey's bleak childhood under a puritanical father (Lithgow) and his rebellious decision to become a biologist. The young professor makes his name with his exhaustive study of wasps. But it is his embarrassing fumbling on his own wedding night that starts Kinsey thinking about what is "normal" in the bedroom.

Encouraged by his supportive wife (Linney), an understanding university chancellor (Oliver Platt) and donations from the Rockefeller Foundation, Kinsey travels the country interviewing thousands of Americans for his groundbreaking 1948 book Sexual Behaviour In The Human Male, and its follow-up on women.

Kinsey wants to take sex away from the moralists and give the matter to the scientists, to study. But when he misguidedly encourages his assistants to record their own relationships, his sponsors and the communist-hunting US Government no longer accept glib explanations about "nature films".

Kinsey has its occasional confronting moments, although interestingly the most explicit are the coolly gynaecological photos used in the Professor's early lectures on marital relationships.

Neeson's calm, sincere presence does much to steady the film. The Schindler's List star has no problems conveying Kinsey's anguish and his obsessiveness. Those are important assets in maintaining audience sympathy when Kinsey begins to experiment, dangerously, with his bisexual assistant Clyde Martin (Sarsgaard).

Gods And Monsters director Condon sensibly pushes the melodrama to the background, thus avoiding overloading a potentially torrid set-up.

There are many personal revelations, about Kinsey's wife, his father and more. But they are small, well-timed explosions designed to stop the film bogging down in repetitive scientific experiments.

In its own understated way, Kinsey closely resembles A Beautiful Mind. It captures the times, thanks to the careful, classy producing. It offers a rack of good support performers, especially the gutsy Sarsgaard and Linney as the shrewd wife who sees the moral dangers her husband dismisses. Above all, Kinsey spotlights a sexual libertarian, unknown to most modern viewers, who made such a huge impact on social behaviour.

© 2005 Sun Herald

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