The biographical drama tends to be a good thing. When there’s obvious passion for the subject, a brilliant lead, and a genuine desire to get things right, biopics can be spectacular. Think of Michael Mann’s Ali, with an electrified, completely on point Will Smith. Think of Milos Forman’s The People Versus Larry Flynt, with an appropriately rude and crude Woody Harrelson. Think of the classic Raging Bull, one of Scorcese’s best, with a beefed-up Robert De Niro as the pathetic, misogynist Jake LaMotta. Think of X, Spike Lee’s epic – although occasionally flawed – documentary of Malcolm X’s life, with a ludicrously good Denzel Washington in the lead part.
Indeed, the biopic can be stunning, profound and powerful. And Kinsey is all three. It’s a genuinely spectacular film, drawing its power from subtlety, cinematic finesse, and a cast that delivers at every turn.
Directed by Bill Condon – responsible for 1998’s fantastic Gods And Monsters – Kinsey tells the tale of Alfred Kinsey, the author of the groundbreaking 1948 publication entitled Sexual Behavior In The Human Male. Its release shattered puritan assumptions about how little men masturbate, how rarely they engage in homosexual play and how faithful men are. It confirmed what many had thought, but had lacked the confidence and research to say: the vast majority of men are hypersexual beings, and they do a lot of peculiar things a lot of the time.
Liam Neeson, as Kinsey, is everything you could hope for. Sometimes angry, sometimes confused, but always passionately, intensely focused on his studies, often to the detriment of his personal relations. He’s a man who knows there are unspoken truths out there, and he’s willing to put his career on the line in the pursuit of those truths. Neeson is heart-wrenching, and clearly deserves a date with Oscar.
Laura Linney, as Kinsey’s occasionally suffering but always supportive wife, is superb, Peter Saarsgard – who stole much of the show in 2003’s Shattered Glass – is dynamic, mixing frank eroticism with stunning humanity (an impressive effort considering how often Hollywood serves up erotic figures as nothing more than hypersexual caricatures). John Lithgow, as Kinsey’s uptight, domineering father, delivers one of the best performances of his career.
But despite the stupendously good cast, the real star of the show is us, and our attitudes towards sex. The film consistently engages the audience, testing our limits, pushing our buttons, and demanding that we take a look at how far we’ve come in our sexual thinking. And, a little dishearteningly, Kinsey shows us it isn’t far.
Yes, we’re a lot more aware of sexuality, and indeed a lot more accepting. But why are we still shocked by the image of an erect penis on screen – an image that Kinsey displays during one of his lectures at a university, eliciting shocked cries from his students, and us, the audience? How can homophobia still exist today, when it’s so obvious just how fluid human sexuality is, and just how many people are attracted to members of their own sex? Why does sex supposedly offend our sensibilities so much more than violence? Why is pornography so stigmatised when so many people obviously use it?
Kinsey asks these questions and more, but it never stoops to making them explicit. It never forces the issue, it just explores it so well that you’ll soon find yourself carefully examining your attitudes towards sexuality. It’s a film about one man’s struggle for truth, but it’s also about society’s struggle with sex.
The film isn’t quite perfect. It could have dedicated a little more time to establishing just how backward and repressed society was at the time. It could’ve focused more on how sickening the McCarthyist witch hunts of supposed ‘communists’ – Kinsey amongst them – really was.
But these are minor flaws in a film that is spectacularly powerful, and no doubt one of the must-sees of 2005.
(Originally published at inthemix.com.au).
Indeed, the biopic can be stunning, profound and powerful. And Kinsey is all three. It’s a genuinely spectacular film, drawing its power from subtlety, cinematic finesse, and a cast that delivers at every turn.
Directed by Bill Condon – responsible for 1998’s fantastic Gods And Monsters – Kinsey tells the tale of Alfred Kinsey, the author of the groundbreaking 1948 publication entitled Sexual Behavior In The Human Male. Its release shattered puritan assumptions about how little men masturbate, how rarely they engage in homosexual play and how faithful men are. It confirmed what many had thought, but had lacked the confidence and research to say: the vast majority of men are hypersexual beings, and they do a lot of peculiar things a lot of the time.
Liam Neeson, as Kinsey, is everything you could hope for. Sometimes angry, sometimes confused, but always passionately, intensely focused on his studies, often to the detriment of his personal relations. He’s a man who knows there are unspoken truths out there, and he’s willing to put his career on the line in the pursuit of those truths. Neeson is heart-wrenching, and clearly deserves a date with Oscar.
Laura Linney, as Kinsey’s occasionally suffering but always supportive wife, is superb, Peter Saarsgard – who stole much of the show in 2003’s Shattered Glass – is dynamic, mixing frank eroticism with stunning humanity (an impressive effort considering how often Hollywood serves up erotic figures as nothing more than hypersexual caricatures). John Lithgow, as Kinsey’s uptight, domineering father, delivers one of the best performances of his career.
But despite the stupendously good cast, the real star of the show is us, and our attitudes towards sex. The film consistently engages the audience, testing our limits, pushing our buttons, and demanding that we take a look at how far we’ve come in our sexual thinking. And, a little dishearteningly, Kinsey shows us it isn’t far.
Yes, we’re a lot more aware of sexuality, and indeed a lot more accepting. But why are we still shocked by the image of an erect penis on screen – an image that Kinsey displays during one of his lectures at a university, eliciting shocked cries from his students, and us, the audience? How can homophobia still exist today, when it’s so obvious just how fluid human sexuality is, and just how many people are attracted to members of their own sex? Why does sex supposedly offend our sensibilities so much more than violence? Why is pornography so stigmatised when so many people obviously use it?
Kinsey asks these questions and more, but it never stoops to making them explicit. It never forces the issue, it just explores it so well that you’ll soon find yourself carefully examining your attitudes towards sexuality. It’s a film about one man’s struggle for truth, but it’s also about society’s struggle with sex.
The film isn’t quite perfect. It could have dedicated a little more time to establishing just how backward and repressed society was at the time. It could’ve focused more on how sickening the McCarthyist witch hunts of supposed ‘communists’ – Kinsey amongst them – really was.
But these are minor flaws in a film that is spectacularly powerful, and no doubt one of the must-sees of 2005.
(Originally published at inthemix.com.au).
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