MOVIES: Kinsey

Just so I don't skip the entire weekend without a post, here's a quick rundown of Kinsey, which I saw Saturday.

I can imagine an awful lot of people still being shocked and upset by the content in this movie; in fact, I can imagine people being more shocked by it now than they would've been thirty years ago. Which makes the film all the more relevant and essential.

Liam Neeson is very good, but it's his co-stars who really stand out. Laura Linney, well, I just love her, so I'm biased. But that doesn't mean she isn't still excellent. Which she is. Peter Sarsgaard, who was in a similarly sexually intense and progressive film, The Center of the World, is really incredible -- it's a strong, brave performance, in many ways. Chris O'Donnell was a little distracting. He seemed really miscast, as he usually does in any role with a greater depth than Robin. But there are so many other interesting supporting characters brought to life by a variety of excellent actors, from Oliver Platt to Dylan Baker to a hilariously cast-against-type Tim Curry, whose sexual repressive is diametrically opposed to his most memorable role of Frank N. Furter, and John Lithgow as Kinsey's cruel zealot of a father, who begins the film with a speech against the various temptations of the world; you can't help but picture him banning that obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality.

Kinsey feels very current and vital; the sexual repression of Kinsey's age seems to have reawakened in the last couple of years, what with a one-second, long-distance, televised exposure of a woman's nipple during a sporting event destroying the moral fiber of our society and all. I don't doubt Kinsey would face similarly vocal and misguided opponents to his revolutionary studies were he to have begun them last week, as opposed to 60 years ago.

The film takes a fair look at Kinsey's life, I think. It portrays him as both a genius and an unhealthy obsessive; it shows the good he performed, as well as the harm he unwittingly or uncaringly did to those close to him. I thought the direction was a little uneven; some of the imagery was a little heavy-handed, and the film dragged a bit during the later parts, those concerned with Kinsey's downfall from favor and fame.

But I liked it a great deal. It's a good story, with unusual characters and a healthy sense of humor, about an incredibly interesting and influential figure in our country's social development. If it hadn't been for Kinsey, how much more messed up would we still be?