Kinsey (2004)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Bill Condon

Writer (WGA):

Bill Condon (written by)

Release Date:

13 January 2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Let's talk about sex.

Plot:

A look at the life of Alfred Kinsey (Neeson), a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Student | Interview | Science | Indiana University

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 11 wins & 26 nominations

Cast

Liam Neeson	...	Alfred Kinsey
Laura Linney	...	Clara McMillen
Chris O'Donnell	...	Wardell Pomeroy
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Clyde Martin
Timothy Hutton	...	Paul Gebhard
John Lithgow	...	Alfred Seguine Kinsey
Tim Curry	...	Thurman Rice
Oliver Platt	...	Herman Wells
Dylan Baker	...	Alan Gregg
Julianne Nicholson	...	Alice Martin
William Sadler	...	Kenneth Braun
John McMartin	...	Huntington Hartford
Veronica Cartwright	...	Sara Kinsey
Kathleen Chalfant	...	Barbara Merkle
Heather Goldenhersh	...	Martha Pomeroy

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive sexual content, including some graphic images and descriptions.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Slovenian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:R-15 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | USA:R (certificate #40544) | Spain:18 | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:18A (Manitoba) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:III | Ireland:16 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Netherlands:16 | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Bloomfield, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

In the script, Peter Sarsgaard did not have to strip in the motel scene.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: Kinsey is talking with reporters upon arriving in New York and his dialogue does not match up with the shot of him.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Alfred Kinsey: Love is the answer, isn't it? But, sex raises a lot of very interesting questions...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Kinsey Report: Sex on Film (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

Violin Concerto #3, D Minor, Opus 58

A superb, if unlikely, biopic

Dr Alfred Kinsey may not seem the most likely subject for a biopic, but then he did discover sex or rather, he discovered that the American male and the American female, and the rest of us, come to think about it, were at it like rabbits, with each other, with themselves and with just about anyone and anything that moved and in positions most people could probably not even get into. He was a scientist who really revolutionised science because the mirror he held up contained within it all our reflections. And in a way, it's been all uphill or all downhill, depending on how you look at it, ever since.

Bill Condon's remarkable movie captures the spirit of this remarkable man. Even with the subject matter at hand, it still could have been deadly dull: all that screwing, all those statistics. (For how many minutes can you watch a hardcore porn movie before becoming bored? Answers on a postcard, please). Instead he makes Kinsey a flawed but deeply humane and above all likable man and Liam Neeson plays him superlatively. And he is matched throughout by Laura Linney's performance as the wife who gave herself over to her husband's research, sometimes at great emotional and personal cost to herself. What's most interesting about this relationship is that it is obvious to anyone that they love each other, though as they give themselves entirely to acting out Kinsey's sexual research, love is the one word that isn't mentioned. And there is another beautiful performance from that increasingly fine young actor Peter Sarsgaard as the research student whom both Kinsey's have sex with. (The film is always sexually explicit though never prurient). It is also touching and very, very funny and is superbly directed by Condon who also looked at another off-the-wall American celebrity when he made the largely fictionalised study of the last days of director James Whale in "Gods and Monsters". That was a wonderfully unconventional film. This is even better.