User reviews

Bill Condon, working with his own material has come out with a movie that serves to illustrate how the work of Dr. Kinsey awoke the American public to a better understanding of their sexuality in ways no one, up to that point, had ever dared to show. As he proved with his other film, "Gods and Monsters", Mr. Condon shows he doesn't mind tackling adult themes, so scarce in the present cinema.

The film is documentary in style, as we are shown the life of Kinsey at different times of his life. He had an unhappy childhood. His father was a tyrant who never really showed love toward him. There are moments when the young Kinsey is shown as boy scout and there is an element of homosexuality that maybe, for fear, never came to the surface, but it's there, nonetheless.

Dr. Kinsey's life takes a turn when he meets, Clara McMillen, who he calls "Mac". It's with her that he begins a life of discovery in the field of human sexuality that was taboo in American colleges and universities at the time. Albert Kinsey was the first one that spoke about the things that were never said in polite company, or in the classroom, up to that moment. His life was dedicated to understand what made human beings act the way they did, never being judgmental, but with a tremendous insight to interpret the data and present it in a comprehensible way.

A puritanical American society reacted strongly against the findings of Dr. Kinsey. He was a man ahead of his times when he decided to gather information about the sex lives of Americans and to publish the results in a best selling book.

As Dr. Kinsey, Liam Neeson, showing an uncanny resemblance to the man, himself, does a wonderful job. He shows a complicated character who was not easily understood by his associates and students. As "Mac", his wife, Laura Linney with a dark wig, gives an articulate performance of Mrs. Kinsey. Both actors are wonderful together, as they have already shown in the New York stage.

Peter Sargaard, as Clyde, Dr. Kinsey's first assistant, shows he is an actor that will amaze from picture to picture. This actor has the ability to get under each of his character's skins to make them real, as is the case with his Clyde. Also, almost unrecognizable, Chris O'Donnell, who plays Wardell, one of the interviewers working with the doctor. Timothy Hutton is Gebhard, the other associate who was instrumental in gathering the information to help complete Dr. Kinsey's report. John Lithgow, as Kinsey Sr. has a fantastic moment with Mr. Neeson, as he agrees to be interviewed, revealing a horrible secret. It's a wonderful moment done with panache by both actors working under exceptional direction.

There is a moment toward the end of the film where we see Lynn Redgrave speaking directly to the camera. It is one of the most effective moments in the film when this woman tells Dr. Kinsey about her life as a lesbian.

Mr. Condon's film clarifies a lot about the genius of Kinsey and his contribution to society.

Kinsey indeed did the nation a favor when he published his studies of the sex habits of the American male and female and the nation finally got a chance to see what was actually being done sexually versus the repressive conventions of the times that had many people believing that they were sexually abnormal. However, if the facts of the movie are largely true, it seems that Kinsey fell victim to the same basic fallacy as Ayn Rand. Kinsey seemed to believe that just because something - in this case sex - can be described and studied objectively, that it can and should be practiced objectively.

For example, Kinsey plunged into a homosexual affair with his assistant - with his wife's full knowledge - because he wanted to explore a side of himself he felt he had been repressing. His wife seems quite hurt by the revelation, but later she embarks on an affair with the same assistant when he tires of her husband, apparently with Kinsey's encouragement. Maybe this worked for the Kinseys, but for most people this type of behavior would break a relationship. It also seemed odd that Kinsey was as insistent and preachy about adults being sexually liberated as his father had been with the opposite viewpoint, ultimately alienating his own son just as his father had alienated him.

In the long run Kinsey's work was key to decriminalizing all kinds of sexual behavior that had been considered deviant up to that time.

This film was a very balanced and frank biopic of Dr. Kinsey, in my opinion.

This is an intelligent and often moving piece of cinema, that is one of the highlights of 2004. Kinsey is about a scientist's struggle in convincing the world about the scientific approach to sexual behaviour. The performances from everyone around are fantastic. Liam Neeson gives his career-best performance, after his role in Schindler's List (which is truly disturbing). Laura Linney matches him wonderfully as his wife Clara, and Peter Sarasgaard also gives a fantastic performance. And there are also famous faces like Chris O'Donnell, Oliver Platt, John Lithgow and Tim Curry, though they had little screen time to develop properly. The soundtrack is fabulous, very moving and I genuinely mean that, and the film looks stunning. The only other problem with the movie, is it's length, it is a little long for a biographical drama. But the ending of the movie, was the most moving ending since the Elephant Man (The saddest film ever made) and bravo to Lynn Redgrave. This excellently observed film is well worth worthing. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Before discussing the movie, I have to say up front that I am not an expert on Alfred Kinsey's life but only heard about him in various documentaries dealing with sexuality of humans and animals. But being a fan of some of the cast members, I thought that I should give this movie a try, and I did, and it was worth it.

The film focuses around Alfred Kimsey (Liam Neeson), probably the biggest expert on sexual behaviours and sexuality in general of the 20th century. The plot jumps from a long interview about sexual behaviours from flashbacks about his childhood and adolescence. During his childhood his father (John Lithgow) was a minister for the church that compared modern inventions to sins and humiliated Alfred during his adolescence because a book keeper showed him cigarettes, and as an adult Kinsey is seen teaching biology and discussing about gall wasps (and after the classes he meets with his students for individual sexual advice). After having support from the Rockefeller Foundation he goes cross country with his colleagues, notably Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard), Paul Gebhard (Timothy Hutton) and Wardell Pomeroy (Chris O'Donnell) interviewing various subjects about sexual experiences and fantasies. He also creates the Kimsey scale that ranks overall sexuality from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual, and will continue his work about sexuality.

The acting was great: Liam Neeson played Alfred Kimsey with his usual suaveness that he really nailed the role; Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton and Chris O'Donnell are great as his colleagues; John Lithgow as Kinsey's dad, William Sadler as a guy that says to lose liquids easily (can't say the real words here), Tim Curry as a professor and Oliver Platt as the dean of Indiana University were a delight to watch despite their roles were brief, and I would have loved to see them more. Bill Condon directs nicely and more focused, better than when he did the awful TWILIGHT franchise. And Kimsey's story is so interesting that despite the movie lasts more than two hours, they fly easily.

Overall, a good biopic mostly because it manages to give a nice portrait of a real-life person without exaggerating the facts (and after it was over I read something about Kimsey's life and it was all like in the movie)

Bill Condon masterfully wrote and directed this biography of Alfred Kinsey, an entomologist whose own honeymoon problems (treated with sensible therapy) turned him on to the scientific research of human sexuality. Kinsey's first book on the subject, a watershed 1948 dissection of the sexual proclivities of man--funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation--was greeted with great acclaim, book sales and celebrity; however, his follow-up tome on women's sexuality went up against a changing political climate and was viewed as distasteful. Further research by Kinsey and his hand-picked team brought sexual deviates out of the woodwork, including at least one serial pedophile, which caused even Kinsey's most ardent supporters to fall away--and brought up Kinsey's own bugaboos brought on by a frustrating childhood growing up as the son of a priggish, radical preacher. Beautifully-cast and produced drama gives Liam Neeson the role of his career (he's flawless). Also excellent: Laura Linney as Kinsey's loyal and non-prudish wife, Peter Sarsgaard as Kinsey's bisexual assistant who seduces Kinsey (and then dumps him for Mrs. Kinsey!), and Lynn Redgrave in a wonderful cameo as a lesbian interviewee who came out of the closet due to Kinsey's work. It's a smashing film. ***1/2 from ****

Since its publication sixty years ago, the first Kinsey Report (real title: "Sexual Behavior of 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.

There's a nice little comment in the movie where Kinsey speculates what America would be like if it were founded by libertines instead of puritans.

We'll never know. But the work ethic of the puritans has served America well.

Invented the light bulb.

Invented steam power machines.

Invented the telephone.

Invented the stove.

Invented photography and movie making.

Discovered electricity.

Invented powered flight.

Brought the assembly line into fine tune.

Split the atom.

Cured polio.

First to set foot on another celestial body.

Reawakened and then realized the ideas and practice of self-rule and self-determination.

Created the first modern society where social strata and wealth could be determined by initiative more often than accident of birth.

Major factor in determining the outcome of WW1 and WW2.

Major factor in the downfall of collectivism as a political instrument.

Basically USA = innovation. The puritan work ethic can take much of the credit.

But the puritans had their Achilles heel = SEX. It scared them and confused them more than Satan.

The libertines got the last laugh in the USA and most of the rest of the world. The Puritans couldn't keep the pleasure-sex-genie in the bottle and when it was finally released after 2000 years of confinement, the country and the world embraced the libertines. (not totally, but as a majority)

But the libertines also have their Achilles heel. Libertines embrace hyperbole like puritans, only of a different sort. As witnessed by this comment from a fellow reviewer - "I suppose I'm getting bored with homosexuality in movies...all my heroes appear to have been homosexuals..oh well..." (Commoner)

Lincoln, DaVinci, Christ, etc. were likely not Gay or bisexual, even tho the pendulum has swung so far to the other side that now it's fashionable to make such silly claims. This is an example of the libertine Achilles heel. Everyone is "outside the norm" in their world. But that idea is logically flawed and self-conflicting.

There are things that have norms and things that don't have norms. The puritans and libertines both struggle with this simple and true idea.

This was a fine movie, tho not a great Biopic. It is certainly worth watching. And Kinsey is not nearly as boring or repugnant as some on here claim, those reviewers seem to employ their own sexual and/or story-telling sensibilities when taking cheap shots at Kinsey the human being.

The reason the movie is important and powerful is that all of humanity owes a debt to Kinsey and those inquiring minds who came before him like Freud, the Marquis de Sade, Plato, etc. And important people who came after him like Hefner and Steinem paid homage to him in their comments about the world that inspired them.

What debt you say? He exposed the myth of normalcy as attached to human sexuality. There are over 6 billion human's on the planet and Kinsey illustrated that there are over 6 billion interpretations on sexual pleasure as a result of this fact. He inadvertently opened up the idea that sex was more about the brain than the rest of the human anatomy. This idea was not the focus of his work. But came about as a result of discovering that "accepted norms" and "actual norms" are not the same thing when talking about intimacy. Sexuality is too individual to apply any norm outside the idea that no one should be forced or coerced into doing something they expressly find offensive and/or painful.

The current overall rating it enjoys on IMDb is fair and one I consider accurate.

The sexual revolution as we know it got jump started by the man whom this film is about. Alfred Kinsey may not have been the first man to study sex in the abstract, but he certainly was the first man who became widely popular for doing so.

No doubt his interest in sex was a product of his reaction to his Puritan like father John Lithgow who has made roles like the senior Kinsey a real treat ever since his portrayal as a fundamentalist reverend in Footloose. What kid hasn't wanted to explore forbidden knowledge after some religious authority told them it was a no-no. All that Kinsey did was explore far more than others had done and published his controversial findings.

Liam Neeson plays Alfred Kinsey the patient researcher and biologist who did nothing less than revolutionize traditional mores to their foundation. His portrayal is restrained and dignified. Not really gone into is the fact that Kinsey was bisexual and did have a relationship with the character that Timothy Hutton plays.

Not so with Laura Linney who gained an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as Mrs. Kinsey. Off the bat she tells him she believes in free love and proves it with Chris O'Donnell while married to Neeson. He's not minding at all though, the work comes first with him.

Linney is the one you'll most remember, but Neeson and the rest give spirited performances and breathe life into the father of the sexual revolution for the silver screen.

I was just a -kid- when Alfred was doing his thing, but I can remember what America was like before the Korean War. My parents had grave sexual problems. (Ma, long buried now, told me when I was teenager she'd not had sex with Dad since was five.)

As I recall them now, my midwestern and northern plains grandparents all seemed to be carved from stone. Of the six aforementioned, none ever embraced passionately in my presence. They pecked each other's cheeks and made "small talk."

Despite their public personas, I'm sure relatively sure -something- was happening. Sex is (for good Darwinian reasons) the fourth most powerful impulse in all animal behavior. Sex determines what we think, how we feel and what we do more than any other single motivational force save breath, hunger and elimination.

Back to late '40s. People stayed married in those days. They watched Ralph, Alice, Ed and Trixie on "The Honeymooners" in grainy black and white and smiled knowingly. They seemed to recognize themselves in the power struggles on the 12-inch screen. Life was something to be endured.

Like most of you reading this, I vowed I would not be like that. But, of course, in many ways, I was. I loved sex, but it was soaked in shame.

"Kinsey" may be an "odd" film, but as a filter through which one may clarify the asserted vs. actual beliefs, values and attitudes of the Greatest Generation, it is worth the two-hour investment. It might have been even more investment-worthy had there been some deeper character study of the great man and how it was that he came to distance himself so much from the prevailing socializations of morally pious, shame-saturated, grossly dishonest, post-depression America.

(Have we swung too far the -other- way? Of course we have, but that is what we do. We are the moral descendants of the Israelites Charleton Heston found dancing around the golden calf when he returned with the tablets, after all. Extremism seems perfectly normal to us because we have no other frame of reference.)

The film's purpose is set forth in Kinsey's last sentence before he collapses in front of the dwindling audience to his warning that "the forces are assembling to put an end to further scientific research." It is the era of the House Un-American Activities Committee, of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy, communists in the attic and moralizing doublespeak pretty much everywhere that mattered.

Pioneers tend to suffer. A half-century before Kinsey, Pierre Janet demonstrated conclusively that most psychiatric problems are the result of rotten parenting. (Freud chose to ignore the truth, and we wasted most of an entire century chasing bogus theories of personality Kinsey played no small part in discounting.) Thirty years before Kinsey, Billy Mitchell took a hammering for espousing the very doctrines of aviation warfare that won World War II. By the early '30s, he was a broken man. Thirty years after Kinsey, Alice Miller took a beating in the European media when she wrote about the horrors of "poisonous pedagogy" in -For Your Own Good-, -Thou Shalt Not Know- and the other books that followed. By the early '90s, her writing showed the evidence of her increasing madness.

Face it kids, most people do not want to know the way things are and they -will- reliably stone the messengers. It's not just that powerful forces are at work to keep the masses in the dark – though they very much are – it's that most people would rather -stay- in the dark. They believe it is "easier" to remain in deep denial of their confusion because almost everyone else thinks so, too. Denial is our societal norm.

This is the message of "Kinsey," but the -delivery- of the message is, in this case, far more effective than my little rendition of it here.

"Kinsey" is all about Neeson as Alfred Kinsey, the first scientist to take on the daunting challenge of scientifically investigating human sexuality in the mid-20th century when sex education was still happening in the streets and American society was still corseted with the stays of puritan mores. A very well presented biopic, "Kinsey" manages the provocative aspects of sex well, keeping the subject in a clinical perspective, avoiding sensationalism, while fleshing out a complex character who is driven by scientific fervor while wrestling with his own desires, conflicts, and professional and marital woes. Worth a look by anyone interested in ground breaking psyco/social research or aficionados of psychodramas. However, not for those who may be squeamish about sexuality. (B+)

This is a great, well crafted movie. The first hour is a delight, funny, energized, largely due to Liam Neeson's incredibly focused performance and Director Condon's choice of scenarios. "Look we're opening up Pandora's box (pun intended) and we're so fascinated with what we're finding!"

The second hour gets darker and the pace changes as the researchers run into the human cost of letting loose the sexual energy without a clue about the after affects - somewhat like winning war without planning for winning the peace. But it remains fascinating until the end. Laura Linney, a favorite of mine, does stolid drab really well. Peter Sarsgard is heading for stardom if he can keep away from Hollywood's penchant for trash.

As I'm in my 60's I remember the effects of the Kinsey report at College. It didn't let loose sexual immorality as the Evangelicals are claiming, but it sure as hell opened up the discussion of the Taboo subject. Kinsey captures well the dysfunctional dynamics of the family of "sexologists." You can't separate sex from emotions without causing harm to relationships and vapidity to the human soul. There is a reason societies and religions have kept the lid on the subject, because like drugs it's fun and dangerous! The pendulum always swings between one extreme and another. While Kinsey added a lot of data to the field of American sexuality he approached it like the zoologist that he was: coldly and non judgmentally, and he was made to pay for it.

Kinsey may be the most controversial film to be nominated this year for the "Best Picture – Drama" Golden Globe, followed closely by Closer. And, yes, what Dr. Kinsey said continues to be controversial indeed. His perspective is interesting, yet troubled, but instead of rambling on about the points on which I agree with Dr. Kinsey and the points on which he and I do not agree, let me speak of the quality of the film.

Kinsey is the true story of, as I assumed you knew in the paragraph above, a doctor, who, in the 1940s, studied in depth sexual intercourse and eventually published material regarding his research. The character of Alfred Kinsey is played quite well by Liam Neeson, as the viewer never questions Neeson's legitimacy as a man fed-up with society's views of sexual behavior. Playing Kinsey's wife, Clara McMillen, is Laura Linney who also puts in a good supporting performance as a woman both troubled and intrigued by her husband's research and its effect on him.

The rest of the supporting actors also pull off strong performances, especially Peter Sarsgaard as Clyde Martin, a man struggling with his own sexuality and emotions as he works alongside Dr. Kinsey. The film is well-shot by director Bill Condon, and although neither the score nor the cinematography particularly stand out, they do not detract from the film either. Also, the film seems to be periodically sound, seemingly including authentic dress, sets, and reactions of characters.

However, the film seems to focus more on Kinsey's research than on Kinsey himself. What was it about Dr. Kinsey that made people trust him and reveal the most intimate details of their sex lives to him? Why was it that, even when he emotionally scarred of those around him, that they always seemed to return to him like a child to a loving father? In fact, no matter how emotional the film becomes, the emotion seems to be centered in Kinsey's love for his research, rather than on Kinsey's emotional response to the relationships in which he involves himself, which seems to be only an afterthought, leaving him more one-dimensional than his character should be.

In conclusion, this film earns its well-deserved Golden Globe nominations, and if it had dug a little deeper into Kinsey's character, it would deserve even more acclaim.

Final Grade: B+.

As you would expect from a cast of this caliber, and a topic with as much potential as human sexuality-this is a great movie. I left wanting to read more biographical information on Alfred Kinsey and learn how much artistic license the film took. That does not happen very often for me, where I usually walk out of a film having had more than enough of a topic.

It seems hard to imagine how restricted we humans were just a few decades ago in our sense of sexuality. Looking at where we are now against the norms portrayed in this movie helps to explain a lot of why people have such diverging reactions to sexuality in the present. But the film is also very much about a man and the people around him, and societies reluctance to truly explore different points of understanding from what we feel is true.

Kinsey the movie starts with an exploration of Kinsey's (Liam Nelson) obsessive scientific exploration of the gull wasps. It explores how his family life relates to his world. There is exploration into how a 'great' person is human with the challenges of humanity. This is where the film really gets thoughtful. Where is the edge of the science of humanity and where is the edge of the humanity of science. When we are exploring something about us humans, the lines get fuzzy.

As a period piece it plays well, probably because so many of the issues are timeless. Themes range from love, passion, challenge of the establishment, understanding, family, church, knowledge, and the fallibility of hero's.

The photography works well and does not stand out as distracting from the passion of the life and story of Kinsey. It has some definite challenges in trying to show sexuality without stepping into the 'x rated' trap, and still telling the power of the story. It does it well of communicating the power of the photography Kinsey and his researcher used at the time.

By the way the Terry Gross from National Public Radio (www.NPR.org) interview with the director Bill Condon ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4192388 )is great and very helpful in getting a sense of what he took artistic license with and how historically accurate the film is. My conclusion is it portrays the reality pretty well.

So where do you rate on a scale from 1-6?

This is a film about Alfred Kinsey, an American biologist whose controversial research & lifestyle generated a lot of public interest. I like how the creators of the film have focused on the greatness & impact of his work in a very rational way. Obviously, the film glosses over some aspects, but overall it manages to make a fair point. Scientists, even great ones, are also humans who are imperfect in some aspects. What really matters is their contribution to the world of science. Needless to say that his very popular book & course paved a way to open & honest discussions about the various aspects of human sexuality.

I confess that I was afraid that it may turn out to be a very boring film but I was pleasantly surprised since it is quite well made.

This film is a fascinating example of what happens when Hollywood gets hold of an American legend. Anything which interferes with the film makers' view of the story is out the window. The film correctly states that when Congressman B Carroll Reece of Tennessee attacked Albert Kinsey in 1953 the Rockefeller Foundation withdrew its funding of his research into sexual behaviour. Then we see a meeting of the Trustees of Indiana University, Kinsey's home institution, at which the Orson Welles-like President Herman Wells (Oliver Plath), a supporter of Kinsey's work, is unsuccessful in persuading them to continue to fund Kinsey's institute out of book royalties. Yet according to the Kinsey Institute web site: "President Wells then approached the Trustees of Indiana University to ask for continued support of the Institute for Sex Research, which they granted. Since then the Institute has received funding from various private and public sources, including the National Institutes of Health (NIMH, NICHD, NIDA), Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Eli Lilly & Co., and Indiana University." Why this departure from the facts? Well, it makes Kinsey look more embattled, and more sympathetic than he really was. It is also rather unfair to the trustees, who stuck their necks out to support Kinsey despite the controversy he had caused.

There was also some license taken over Kinsey's relationship with his stern and bigoted father (a measured performance from John Lithgow) who in reality divorced his mother in 1930 and never spoke with his son afterwards. The film shows Kinsey and his Dad reaching some understanding after his mother's death; maybe Kinsey wished for this to happen but it never did.

But not to worry. This is a superior entertainment on a topic almost no-one is not interested in. Kinsey, the obsessive seeker-after of data with some background in marriage counseling was the man for the job of exposing to Americans what was really going on in their bedrooms (and a lot of other surprising places). The fact that he and his associates had some kinks of their own should hardly come as a shock. Even if there were some shortcomings in the methodology and statistics, or even as some of the Christian right have alleged, fraud) Kinsey and Co got people started on a vital but previously neglected aspect of human behaviour. Without Kinsey, a scientist, not a charlatan, there would have been no Masters and Johnson, not to mention a thousand Playboy Adviser columns. Unless you believe ignorance is preferable to knowledge, Kinsey has to be a pin-up boy.

I enjoyed Liam Neeson's tousled, nerdy Kinsey and Laura Linney as his spirited and supportive wife. In fact all the cast were good and the thirties/forties college atmosphere was well invoked (with location shooting in and around New York rather than Bloomington, Indiana). I'll forgive the departures from history because the film never loses sight of the importance of Kinsey's work. The "last interviewee" (played by Lynn Redgrave), where a nice lesbian lady thanks Kinsey for liberating her, says it all.

Alfred Kinsey is still a little consensual figure today. Appointed justly as a pioneer and "father" of Sexology and scientific studies around human sexuality, he fought for these studies at a time of enormous social conservatism and managed to publish two important scientific studies in the area, which greatly shocked and changed the way in which society and the academic community faced sex. However, as later studies have argued, the methods used by Kinsey were not always the most impartial and correct, such as the claim that he was too much concerned with homosexuality and the way in which he encouraged his students and collaborators to record, in detail, the sexual encounters and practices they had in their own privacy for study purposes. The film, in part, reflects the controversies, but highlights the essential: the pioneering spirit of a man who made sex known to a society that refused to even utter that word, paving the way for the changes and upheavals that, decades later, would allow the Sexual Revolution.

After these introductory words, I don't think it's worth talking about the script. With a non-linear narrative, the film addresses several important moments in the scientist's life, with his origins in an ultra-conservative milieu (his father was a particularly harsh and puritan religious preacher) and the way he managed to break away from that milieu to graduate in sciences, becoming a distinguished entomologist and, later, dedicating himself to the study of sexuality, in part driven by events in his personal and marital life. The film does not have an erotic charge, as one might think at first, but the dialogues are full of varied allusions to sexuality (acts, positions, specific practices, fantasies, perversions, etc.) and this is as didactic as it is unpleasant, so I personally advise against the film for minors.

Liam Neeson is an excellent actor, but this film is far from being one of the best and most relevant in his extensive filmography. Still, it's worth highlighting the actor's commitment and the way he managed to give the character an aura of charisma, like a lone crusader in a very personal war. Beside her, the beautiful Laura Linney gave life to a dedicated and liberal wife, with a free spirit, but faithful to the love that was born in her marriage. Personally, I think she was even better than Neeson, stealing attention whenever she shows up and turning the character into someone who is easy to like. The reward was her nomination for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The film also features appearances by other well-known actors such as John Lithgow, Timothy Hutton, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Oliver Platt and Tim Curry. Everyone, without major exceptions, made a good contribution to the film and did a positive job.

Technically, it's a low-key film, one that doesn't overwhelm and leaves the script and cast to the full attention of the audience. The cinematography is very good and works very well, as is the editing work, which gives the film a pleasant pace and allows the two and a half hours to pass without the audience realizing it. The film is set in the mid-twentieth century, and this is achieved very effectively through the sets, a series of props (the telephone, for example, or even the black-and-white radio and newspapers, and the old cars) and very dated but very elegant clothing. The film doesn't have very obvious effects, but what was used has quality and works well.

"Kinsey" is a biographical drama about biologist Alfred Kinsey, who in the middle of the last century first seriously devoted himself to the study of human sexuality, causing serious controversy and creating enemies in religious and puritan circles. During the 15 years of research, he interviewed about 18,000 people and eventually became completely obsessed with this topic, losing all moral brakes and engaging into the practical exploration of his own sexuality. Besides Liam Neeson who nailed the leading role, there are also Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, and genius John Lithgow. Very interesting, informative and at times shocking and dramatic, this is a film you won't forget and which certainly won't leave you indifferent.

8/10

I found this film to be an interesting and engrossing account of the Life of Alfred Kinsey,played by liam Neeson.whether you like him or not,if the movie is any indication,he was a pioneer in the area of sexual research.at the very least he changed the way peopled look at and perceive sex.he's no doubt a polarizing figure.some people ,I'm sure,reviled him while others applauded him.the movie is very in its language and its depiction of sex,i all its forms.there is some quite graphic language as well as some explicit nudity,but it's shown in a tasteful way and not just gratuitous.it definitely earns its 18A rating though.this is not a film for everybody.some may find it offensive.i didn't but that just me.for me,Kinsey is an 8/10

Just watched "Kinsey" and I must say it's a very interesting and revealing educational historical picture. The film is very in depth and well researched. As many of the younger generation may not know, but Alfred Kinsey the famous zoologist turned scientific sex researcher was a very interesting man who was passionate about finding out what made humans tick underneath their clothes as his research revealed why people had so much pleasure with their private parts.

This film told in flashback style with Kinsey being interviewed about his life and tough childhood, sheds light on what drove him to be a wonder of life and nature. Veteran actor Liam Neeson is spot on as Kinsey as seen is how his many personal demons lead him to investigate the mystery of human sexuality. And to at a time when much free thought was criticized and controversial, Mr. Kinsey was outspoken and his words were for sexual freedom as his test, research and experiments proved that masturbation, affairs, sex before marriage, and homosexuality though morally wrong to most were proved to be enjoyed and it brought pleasure and satisfaction to many. All of this occurring in a time of society when sex should have been hidden, yet Kinsey proved with knowledge that sex was no longer dangerous as it was clearly a powerful part of life.

Outspoken, revealing, and educational, this is one film that proved sexual attitudes finally opened up, and it all began with the work of Alfred Kinsey a true social and iconic cultural pioneer of free will and pleasure thoughts. Also a treat is the always good Laura Linney her support as Kinsey's wife was take notice. This is one film not to be missed it educates you and entertains in a provocative way.

Like also bold was the research done by the man who worked out these reports on the sexual behavior of men and women which made a revolution in the till then established knowledge and the common social and individual convictions on such matters. To withdraw sex out of the pure scope of morals and religion and turning it as an object of scientific research was a task which offended lots of prejudices and cleared up preconceived notions and ideas, contributing in a certain way to the liberation mainly of the women as victims of such prejudices. Of course you can raise here the question -- and this is not missing in the movie -- of knowing if sexual activity is purely physical or it must also involve sentiments and obey to moral rules. But this is a movie review and not a moral essay. That question is legitimate but its discussion is absent of this review because it goes beyond what a movie review is supposed to be. This movie, in its biographical aspect, tells us in astonishingly good way the work of Alfred Kinsey and his struggle to reach the aimed goal of a purely scientific nature, of revealing what actually happens in the human sexual activity and behavior disregarding of moral patterns and also of the common wrong knowledge about it. Its true knowledge would then enable sexologists to establish rules that would allow voluntary and free sex to become a source of pleasure and happiness. Liam Neeson performs very well the role of the main character and the movie shows a live and energetic succession of every aspect of his activity in the pursuit of his aim, including aspects and scenes of his own personal and married life. About the end one of his assistants refers to him that he never dealt with the question of love in his works. He gave a prompt and clear reply to this: love cannot be measured and science only deals with measurable objects and actions. But love is not totally absent from this movie. In fact the love that unites the Kinsey spouses is very deep and firm. Even jealousy appears once in the scene where one of his assistants has a fight with another one that was having an affair with the former's wife. This proves that it is not that easy to consider sexual behavior only under its physical aspects and that psychological ones are also to attend. A beautiful movie on a very difficult theme but in which the mastery and skill of Bill Condon brings it to a good end.

And I thought they just played basketball at Indiana University! But apparently back in the 1940s and 50s there was this Kinsey fellow there trying to study every aspect of human sexuality. Liam Neeson portrays Alfred Kinsey as an odd, meticulous, and somewhat cold professor who moves from studying wasps and other insects to the sex practices of as many people as possible. The film seems to indicate this shift happened overnight once he was married, but since so much of the man's life is covered two hours, you'd have to think he was curious for much longer.

By all accounts, Kinsey is played in terms of personality quite accurately by the always-reliable Liam Neeson. Kinsey is shown to have been raised by a belligerent, ultra-religious fanatical father played by John Lithgow. Having no sexual experience prior to marriage, or frankly any knowledge of sex, Kinsey and his wife (Laura Linney) have quite a bit of difficulty on their wedding night. Once the two of them finally figure things out, a visit by a young couple to his office sets the ball in motion. The two are as confused as ever about sex, and Kinsey sets out to study human sexuality with the same zeal that led him to collect and examine over a million gall wasps. His research basically turns the university on its ear, but of course everyone is fascinated by what he finds. The book he publishes in 1948 is still one of the best sellers ever.

The film seems to paint Kinsey as a flawed hero, and it glosses over some elements of his life and research that might make one re-think their opinion of him if this film is all they ever knew about the man. Kinsey's research practices are thought by many to be too heavily skewed by prison inmates and prostitutes used for interview subjects. It is also believed that more than a few pedophiles were used for his research, and Kinsey continued to use their information rather than turn them in. There is one scene where he is shown to take offense to a creepy pedophile and remind the man that sex should never be forced on anyone. Though by many accounts the real Kinsey kept in touch with this man and used him for research for many years afterward. Dr. Kinsey also used poor judgment by encouraging his assistants to have sex relations with one another. Problems arise from this and are also depicted in the film.

In terms of how the film is acted and constructed, there really is a lot going for it. The acting is top-drawer, and the cast is filled with wonderful and recognizable stars. Laura Linney should especially be praised here as she plays Kinsey's wife. She would like to consider herself a liberated and open-minded person, yet she is often driven to tears or revulsion at the lengths her husband will go to study sex. Dr. Kinsey was openly bisexual as an adult, and he was also known to be a masochist. At least he allows his wife to sleep with other men! It seems only fair to her after all the things he does to/for himself.

Lithgow might have been over-the top as Kinsey's father, but I'd probably blame the writing. Tim Curry is cast against type as a stuffy and prudish biology professor who is at odds with Kinsey. He's a hoot. The photography is exceptional and the period clothing and mannerisms look believable. Even if you are repulsed by the man, his story here is one you will want to check out. We are all still curious about sex to one degree or another, and that is because we are in fact all different. One interesting theory Kinsey has is his 0-6 scale about homosexuality. Zero being totally straight and six being totally gay. Kinsey thinks himself a 3. And the Hound??? How about minus one?? The film is worth about 8 stars.

The Hound.