Kinsey **** (2004, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Lynn Redgrave, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt) – Classic Movie Review 1,999

Writer-director Bill Condon’s 2004 American biographical drama film Kinsey stars Liam Neeson, who gives a sterling performance as US academic and sex scientist Dr Alfred Kinsey, who became America’s most notorious man through his pioneering studies of the sex habits of Americans in the 1940s and 1950s. This tale of the opposition he met on his way to becoming a bestselling author and sexual liberator is intelligent, compelling and rightly provocative.

Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress, Laura Linney oozes warmth and understanding as Kinsey’s hard-pressed wife Clara McMillen Peter Sarsgaard is outstanding as his loyal helper (and briefly lover) Clyde Martin, and Lynn Redgrave (star of Condon’s 1998 Gods and Monsters) superb in a touching cameo as a lesbian, the final interview subject.

Kinsey comes to realise that sexuality, including his own, is much more varied than he thought, and creates the Kinsey scale ranking sexuality from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts against Communists and homosexuals (the Lavender Scare) lead the Rockefeller Foundation, the second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America after the Carnegie Corporation, to withdraw its financial support in case it is called Communist in backing the subversion of traditional American values.

Lucid, literate, liberal, surprisingly funny, and graced with such distinguished acting and an impeccable production, it is one of the year’s most impressive movies. There’s a rare film appearance (as Mrs Spaulding) by Katharine Houghton, who made her debut in 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with her aunt Katharine Hepburn.

It also stars Chris O’Donnell, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker, Julianne Nicholson, William Sadler, John McMartin and Veronica Cartwright.

Kinsey was cheaply made on an $11 million budget, but it took only $10,254,979 at the US box office ($16,918,723 worldwide), but then it always hard to have big grosses with serious movies, even when they are funny and entertaining, as well as provocative and informative.

There were three Golden Globe nominations: best film, actor (Liam Neeson) and supporting actress Laura Linney.

Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956).

Kinsey’s 1948 book Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male was one of the first works with science addressing sexual behaviour.

It is great, with awards and honours scarce for Kinsey, that the American Film Institute properly honoured it with their Movie of the Year award. They said: ‘Kinsey is a rich and engaging film biography about Dr Alfred Kinsey, the revolutionary sex researcher who challenged the conventions of “normal.” But this is no science lesson or standard bio-pic, for writer/director Bill Condon has a dynamic storytelling style that finds a heart in the man whose mind is so celebrated, and also beautifully portrays the era that gasped and then embraced his findings. Liam Neeson delivers a monumental performance as Kinsey, while Laura Linney lights up the screen with warmth and forgiveness.’

The cast are Liam Neeson as Alfred Kinsey, Benjamin Walker as 19-year-old Alfred, Matthew Fahey as 14-year-old Alfred., Will Denton as 10-year-old Alfred, Laura Linney as Clara McMillen, Peter Sarsgaard as Clyde Martin, Chris O’Donnell as Wardell Pomeroy, Timothy Hutton as Paul Gebhard, John Lithgow as Alfred Seguine Kinsey, Tim Curry as Thurman Rice, Oliver Platt as Herman Wells, Dylan Baker as Alan Gregg, William Sadler as Kenneth Braun, John McMartin as Huntington Hartford, John Krasinski as Ben, Lynn Redgrave as final interview subject, Julianne Nicholson as Alice Martin, Veronica Cartwright as Sara Kinsey, Kathleen Chalfant as Barbara Merkle, Heather Goldenhersh as Martha Pomeroy, David Harbour as Robert Kinsey, Judith J K Polson as Mildred Kinsey, Leigh Spofford as Anne Kinsey, Jenna Gavigan as Joan Kinsey, Luke MacFarlane as Bruce Kinsey, and Bill Buell as Dr Thomas Lattimore.

American sexologist, biologist and professor of entomology and zoology Dr Alfred Charles Kinsey June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) founded in 1947 the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. His research on human sexuality continues to provoke controversy.

The film’s producer Gail Mutrux gave Bill Condon a biography on Dr Kinsey in 1999 to start him writing his screenplay, which he based on elements in the biography and his own research.

Kinsey is directed by Bill Condon, runs 118 minutes, is made by American Zoetrope and Myriad Pictures, is distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, is written by Bill Condon, produced by Gail Mutrux, is shot by Frederick Elmes, and is scored by Carter Burwell.

Release date: November 12, 2004.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,999

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The project staff of the Institute for Sex Research, Indiana University, August 1953, with Kinsey centre,