7.0/10
46,843
209 user 192 critic

Dr. Kinsey (2004)

Kinsey (original title)
Trailer
2:37 | Trailer
A look at the life of Alfred Kinsey, 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.

Director:

Bill Condon

Writer:

Bill Condon
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 17 wins & 50 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Learn more

More Like This 

Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.

Director: Tamara Jenkins
Stars: Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco
Certificate: Tous publics Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.

Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Stars: Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Amy Ryan
Biography | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

The last days of Frankenstein (1931) Director James Whale are explored.

Director: Bill Condon
Stars: Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave
The Big C (2010–2013)
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A suburban mother faces her cancer diagnosis while trying to find humor and happiness as well.

Stars: Laura Linney, Oliver Platt, Gabriel Basso
In America (2002)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A family of Irish immigrants adjust to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

Director: Jim Sheridan
Stars: Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Djimon Hounsou
Biography | Drama | History
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Director: George Clooney
Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson
Biography | Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar
Certificate: 12 Action | Adventure | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.

Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo
Biography | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during the production of Le prince et la danseuse (1957).

Director: Simon Curtis
Stars: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh
Harvey Milk I (2008)
Certificate: Tous publics Biography | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

The story of Harvey Milk and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch
Avant la nuit (2000)
Certificate: Tous publics Biography | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

The life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.

Director: Julian Schnabel
Stars: Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, Olatz López Garmendia
Vera Drake (2004)
Certificate: Tous publics Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain--a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Director: Mike Leigh
Stars: Imelda Staunton, Jim Broadbent, Heather Craney
Edit

Storyline

Called "Prok" as an adult (short for Professor Kinsey), Alfred Kinsey, Jr. (Liam Neeson) has been interested in biology since he was a child growing up in the early twentieth century, despite the criticisms of such being evil nonsense from his overbearing and devoutly Christian father, Professor Alfred Seguine Kinsey (John Lithgow). Prok goes on to become a biology professor at Indiana University, initially focusing on the study of gall wasps. But those studies, in combination with questions from his students, coming to terms with the needs of sex with his own wife, a former student of his named Clara McMillen (Laura Linney) (whom he calls Mac), and what he sees as the gross misinformation on the subject currently within popular belief makes him change his focus to human sexuality. Many of those gross untruths - as he sees them - are that oral sex and masturbation cause a slew of maladies, which are perpetuated by what is presented in the university's hygiene class taught by Professor... Written by Huggo

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Let's talk about sex.


Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive sexual content, including some graphic images and descriptions | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

View content advisory »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie featured Brute Force (Stephen Friedland) uncredited in the background, and just like George Harrison in Monty Python: La Vie de Brian (1979), he is in there with champagne glass. See more »

Goofs

The dial tone on one phone used in the movie at the time portrayed had a sound not used by telephony until much later. It was ooooo instead of the earlier arrrr as would have been accurate. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Alfred Kinsey: Don't sit so far away. Anything that creates a distance should be avoided.
See more »

Crazy Credits

At the end of the film (following the main cast credits), a montage featuring Kinsey Institute footage of the mating habits of various animals is accompanied by "Fever" by Little Willie John. See more »

Connections

Referenced in The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

Fever
(1956)
Written by Otis Blackwell (as John Davenport) and Eddie Cooley
Performed by Little Willie John
Published by Fort Knox Music, Inc. (BMI) and Windswept Pacific
Courtesy of King Records
See more »

User Reviews

Delving into the Taboo
19 September 2006 | by dataconflossmoorSee all my reviews

Sexual intercourse was something that was perfunctory for purposes of procreation, and was left intact under those circumstances until a person named Sigmund Freud came along. Freud's rudimentary experimentation with psycho-analytical behavior relevant to sex, as well as other intense emotions, brought on copious mores of conscious thoughts pertinent to the individual's taboo elements of their constitution such as the libido and the id!! By the late 1920's in America, Freud's elementary findings on sexual behavior motivated Alfred Kinsey to initiate research that purported the yearnings of many people nationwide about exposing their intimate desires concerning sex!! The revelation of such proclivities made Kinsey a phenomenon in sexual research after World War II!! Many people were mesmerized and intrigued by the Kinsey Report!!! Alfred Kinsey, a biologist by trade, was determined in his desire to attain a grass roots recognition of the myriad of actions that were predicated on impetuousness!! This movie's basic plot revealed Kinsey's desire for the exposure of the lewd endeavors and double entendre habits which afflicted many "different" people!! Such a depiction of this individual known as Alfred Kinsey sparked a milestone in sexual knowledge to the mainstream American public!!

Liam Neeson did a tremendous job of acting as the role of Kinsey!! The entire film evoked a candid admission concerning lustful desires. If there were no such thing as desires about sex with so many people, Kinsey's research would not have been considered a breakthrough!! The film also points out that Kinsey's ideological binges with his research were often times halted by a lack of funding!!! Much of Kinsey's findings resonated to hedonistic wishes, much of them also translated to blatant intimacy!! Novice excursions with sexual deviancy made Kinsey and his wife educationally curious!! Attaining knowledge through various experimentation that both Kinsey and his wife engaged in, transcended infidelity and callous fruition, and relegated the two of them to the precarious plight of the ultimate guinea pigs!! These were emotions that were not sanctioned by love, rather, they were motivated by capricious lust!! Intellectual rumination on the motives of socially adverse carnality invoked a plethora of academic findings for Kinsey!! The end result of such research made Kinsey an unmitigated madman for the acquisition of perverted information!!

I found this movie to be very consciously significant...It was very socially sensitizing, especially in terms of the comprehension of the dogged tenacity Kinsey had to expose the perplexing facts about sex!!! A critical component to unearthing facts about an issue such as sex was merely to talk about the issue of sex!! This film depicts Kinsey's determination to attain knowledge about the historical importance of research and development germane to human sexual behavior which altered the lifestyle patterns of American living!! The cinema accommodated provision to the movie audience for Kinsey's findings that were in fact revolutionary floodgates that opened the formulation of the attitudes people have today!! The introductory dialog to this film is outstanding, and excellent performances by Liam Neeson and Chris O'Donnell make this film worth watching over and over again!! Bottom line, See this movie at least once!!


10 of 17 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you? | Report this
Review this title | See all 209 user reviews »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Searchlight

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 April 2005 (France) See more »

Also Known As:

Dr. Kinsey See more »

Filming Locations:

Bloomfield, New Jersey, USA See more »

Edit

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$169,038, 14 November 2004

Gross USA:

$10,254,979

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$17,050,017
See more on IMDbPro »

Company Credits

Show more on IMDbPro »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See full technical specs »

Contribute to This Page



Recently Viewed