Kinsey Review
by Chris McGeachy (chrismcg AT shaw DOT ca)December 16th, 2004
Kinsey
*** Out of ****
For all the taboo subjects that surround society, sex is the one that's always there but never really acknowledged. Kinsey is a biopic of sorts based on the life of scientist Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson), a pioneer in scientific study of sex and sexual behavior - and in turn the father of the sexual revolution. Before Kinsey's research broke many of the myths surrounding sexuality, it was widely believed and affirmed that people who tried to play new and different symphonies with the organs in their drawers would end up diseased, blind and living in the gutter. Kinsey's research wasn't regarded as a good thing by everyone however, and the critics eventually ruined his good name, his reputation and left his life's work unfunded and unfinished by the end of this film.
Director/Writer Bill Condon weaves the story in a crafty manner - introducing us to Kinsey and the people who affect him throughout life.
Through the introduction we're given a brief history of Kinsey from his childhood to professorhood - intertwined with many rigid and sexually frank comments as Kinsey drills recruits he's entrusted his life's work to. What made Kinsey a very clever film was it's lack of focus on the material which the protagonist eventually delivers, and setting focus squarely on the man himself - showing the character as a very ambitious and motivated person who works hard and knows what he wants. Neeson gives the character soul, and shows us the drive which led to his groundbreaking works being published moving the film along at a steady pace.
Kinsey falls in love early on - with a student in one of his classes no less. Clara (Laura Linney) is a keen and cool-headed girl, who he later marries. She serves the story well by giving Kinsey's character a human and oft-needed emotional angle (most of the time he's the derivative Hank Hill of the sexual revolution). Kinsey's other big influence is his father (John Lithgow) - a man who seems to heed no reasoning but his own, and perhaps fuels the drive displayed by Kinsey throughout the film; and finally Clyde (Peter Saarsgard), who is a student of Kinsey's that introduces him to new and different sides of sexual discovery and aids him in his research.
Kinsey is introduced as a square, sticking to that straight edged persona throughout the film. His first passion, we are told, were gall wasps - having collected over one million of them, Kinsey soon realizes that he is a one-man-army when it comes to interest in the subtle beauties of these creatures. Through a series of small innuendos and a chance discussion with two students suffering from problems in the bedroom, Kinsey realizes a need for scientific research in the field of sexuality and shifts his life's focus on researching sex. This takes its toll on his relationships, and he soon finds himself allowing his wife to commit adultery in an effort to avoid being labeled a hypocrite. He also encourages promiscuous sex and its written documentation within his office. Surely this must have been a great place to work.
With the recent shift towards right-wing Christian thinking in the United States, it comes as no surprise that this film, rather its titular character has come under scrutiny from some conservative groups. The argument is that Kinsey was the source of these problems, and it even goes as far as to say the man was a closet pedophile to boot. While the film doesn't deal with all the aforementioned allegations, it does demonstrate how repression and fear in dealing with this widely taboo subject caused Kinsey to come under heavy scrutiny from the public eye. Kinsey deals with things like being labeled a communist supporter during the fifties and having his work compared to the atom bomb in headlines.
There was a very good scene in the middle of the film where Kinsey finally meets with Kenneth Braun (William Sadler) - a fellow sex observer who Kinsey had long been sharing a correspondence with. The scene involves Kinsey and his counterpart performing the routine study questionnaire on this man, who in turn goes into explicit detail about many of his experiences with sex, talking about everything from his fancies to his rampant dabbling in pedophilia. Kinsey's counterpart leaves in disgust, but Kinsey remains objective - saying "Let's just get on with it." This further solidifies the film's message - that Kinsey was nothing more than a self-motivated person, driven by scientific curiosity in a subject which was considered racy and inappropriate.
While the film doesn't readily delve into the rumors that Kinsey was a masochist or a pedophile or the devil, it preserves the belief that he was the heroic type - warding off the non-believers by following his own path and determinations to document his findings. There were no personal agendas to get in the way of his quest for scientific study. It should also be noted that there is little to no evidence to suggest that Kinsey was in fact a pedophile; however there are some holes in his work concerning the data taken on the sexual activity of children. Again, these are facts taken out of the context of documents and studies conducted over a half a century ago - and certainly from another time and age where sexual repression was just starting to fade and curiosity was all the rage. With that said, Kinsey is a fitting film profiling the life of a man who held the ambition to make a difference in people's lives - and is to this day considered on of the most important figures in the sexual revolution.
© Chris McGeachy (Dec 1 2004)
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