Kinsey starring Liam Neeson, Laura
Linney, Chris ODonnell, Peter
Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton
Great Seller...Really
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 Condons excellent film
biography, Indiana University researcher Alfred Kins ey 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, Condons film gives Neeson
one of his finest roles while revealing the depth of Kinseys 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
Personal Review: Kinsey starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney,
Chris ODonnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton
Just for "truth in reviewing," I have to state that Kinsey has always been
one of my heroes, just as he was a hero to the final interviewee in the film,
who blessed him for saving her life. Even while I was a teenager, Kinsey's
"Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was on my bookshelf, and had pride
of place.
Over the years, details about the man himself have become more public,
and it becomes clear that Kinsey was (surprise!) not actually a perfect
human being. Well, my own search for one of those still continues. :-)
It should not be surprising to learn that Kinsey was a driven man
("relentless"). He was a workaholic. Before even beginning his research
into sex, he collected a MILLION specimens of the gall-wasp, and made
his reputation as a biologist. Something else the film pays little attention
to: he wrote one of the standard college textbooks on biology, which sold
very well for decades and made him a much more independent man.
I'm not sure that the film deals completely with Kinsey's apparent
awakening to his own homosexuality. But it certainly does not skate over
this interesting fact.
Kinsey's sexual orientation was not his fatal flaw, in my opinion. That flaw
may be summed up in one simple sentence: "I can live without sex, but I
can't live without love." Kinsey was a man of his times, and so he was a
behaviorist. He refused to deal with love, because he couldn't measure it.
(And there's a nice question: how indeed can you measure the infinite?)
So Kinsey collected samples, and counted. His entire research on one
human being was reduced to one Hollerith card (AKA "IBM punch card,"
something which I believe no longer exists).
But still --- the man was not a devil; he was basically a worker-bee. Who
else could have produced his two monumental works on "Sexual Behavior
in the Human Male" and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female?"
Mistitled works, though: they should have been called "Sexual Behavior in
the White American Male" and "Sexual Behavior in the White American
Female."
All of this complexity is on view in this film, which really surprised me. The
film avoids painting Kinsey as a Great Liberator, and it also avoids painting
him as a Great Satan. What he was is quite obvious: a man who did
objective research into things which had previously been unmentionable in
Puritan America.
An excellent movie!
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
Kinsey starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris ODonnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy
Hutton 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price!