The One with the Sex Researcher

Kinsey
Rating: 8/10
Oscar chances: Liam Neeson, Best Actor; Billy Condon, Original Screenplay

Post-WWII America considers sex taboo. Zoologist Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson) falls for one of his students Clara McMillen (Laura Linney), and they are married. The awkwardness of their wedding night, and the discovery that many people are misinformed and clueless on the subject matter, leads Kinsey from studying wasps to studying sex. He forms a team of four (including Clyde, played by Peter Sarsgaard) to aid him in gathering data, going cross-country, interviewing several subjects, and conducting experiments.

In a year peppered with biopics, writer/director Billy Condon manages to include the two most important pieces in a biopic: who is the person, and how the person came to be. Credit should be given to Condon, who won an Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Gods and Monsters, and was nominated in the same category for Chicago. The scenes of Kinsey himself answering his own questionnaire, coupled with the flashbacks that set the groundwork for his research is nothing short of marvelous writing. It also sets up most of the film’s humor – something that separates it from all the other biopics.

Laura Linney gives a laudable performance as Kinsey’s wife. Linney is very talented, one of the most underrated actresses of our time. I just wish she’d stay clear of playing wives in the future; every year, she’s someone else’s wife. Peter Sarsgaard satisfies as Kinsey’s right-hand man, although there was one scene which I didn’t think was relevant at all. [spoiler start]Was there really a need to expose his teenie weenie? [spoiler end] There are a lot of smaller roles played magnificently by the ensemble cast, including John Lithgow as Kinsey’s overbearing father, perverted sex predator William Sadler (10 seconds! Whoa!), and old lesbian maid Lynn Redgrave. But it’s Liam Neeson who carries the film as the oft-obsessed researcher. It isn’t his best performance, but his turn as the man who opened society’s eyes to sex is remarkably what carried the second half of the film, which is enough to net him an Oscar nomination.

Overall, Kinsey is an engaging narrative of the sex researcher’s work, a peek at how his studies shocked the people of his time. Watch it if only for the Horse joke – the best one I’ve heard in months. And no, I won't tell, you have to see it for yourself.

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This was originally posted at PinoyExchange, at the OSCARS 2005: The Road towards it! thread. That Kinsey dude had one large pecker. :p