‘Kinsey’-ology

Kinsey (2004)
Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a Bill Condon film, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. Written by Condon. 118m. R for pervasive sexual content, including some graphic images and descriptions.

4 stars

As Alfred Kinsey did with the gall wasp, can America trace its sexualized culture back to its genesis by merely retracing the steps?

We may find it begins in 1948, when Dr. Kinsey’s “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” was published. It told us that we had pedophiles, homosexuals and chronic masturbators in droves. The book’s findings detailed publicly what we previously only discussed in hushed tones and in private journals.

But by the time he was ready with his compendium piece about females, Kinsey was being blocked by a culture paranoid of socialist influence and by a general populace that wasn’t ready to admit that their virginal wives were having extramarital affairs and seeking self-gratification.

It is therefore appropriate that Kinsey’s life was turned into director Bill Condon’s latest examination, because it so nicely follows the “rise and fall” trajectory often employed in biographical fiction. And like Condon’s last film, “Gods & Monsters,” which explored the life of 40s director James Whale, it’s sometimes difficult to tell where the work ends and the life begins.
Raised under the watchful eye of a strict Methodist father (John Lithgow), young Kinsey found himself at the crossroads of conflict during his adolescence. While his father spoke from the pulpit on the evils of such modern inventions as the zipper, Kinsey was drawn by his own sexual impulses.

His curiosity in the uniqueness of other humans yet unrealized, Kinsey (Liam Neeson) took to studying the gall wasp while a professor at Indiana University. He amassed over one million of the tiny creatures, only to discover that no two wasps were the same.

After marrying his graduate student, Clara McMillen (Laura Linney), the eccentric professor realized his lack of sexual prowess was directly linked to his ignorance of the correct techniques. Offering to teach a marriage course to graduate students and married undergrads, Kinsey is surprised to find little credible information about human sexual behavior.
As a scientist - and I believe an obsessive-compulsive type - Kinsey sets out to gather raw data on sexual appetite, which he will synthesize into “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.”

The film’s true genius lies in introducing us to Kinsey’s important backstory through his own instruction to fellow researchers. Under the guise of training them to take detailed “sex histories,” Condon recounts Kinsey’s own defining moments - from childhood flirtations with another male scout to his unconventional marriage.

From its audience, the film has the uncanny ability to generate both nervous laughter and the more traditional chuckles that come from genuine humor. But, like “Gods & Monsters,” it’s a sad, poignant tale as well, evolving in its second hour to a most engaging melodrama.

We are sold on Kinsey - and the importance of his work - through the performance of Neeson who, in speech and physical appearance, makes us believe he is far from conventional. He’s buttressed by a daring performance by Peter Sarsgaard, who plays Kinsey’s junior researcher and sometimes flame Clyde Martin. Sarsgaard, in roles like “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Shattered Glass” and “Garden State,” is a legitimate scene stealer. His turn in “Kinsey” is no different as he oftentimes becomes the impetus for conflict.

Martin, unlike the other more demure researchers (Chris O’Donnell and Timothy Hutton), is at the heart of Kinsey’s self-actualization. He brings the researcher more than a curious fulfillment fantasy; Martin helps Kinsey recognize that there is no “normal” when it comes to sexual behaviors.

Throughout all the various couplings, Condon is careful not to let his film de-evolve into accidental titillation. His approach is much like Kinsey’s attitude toward his research: frank, but ultimately nonjudgmental. Condon is careful not to make Kinsey into a pre-sexual revolution pedagogue by creating a flawed protagonist.

Yet if you’re looking for the man whose procedures have been repeatedly called into question for decades to be vilified, you’ve got the wrong movie. Much like the people he commissioned for studies, Kinsey’s approach was decidedly unorthodox. He did not shy away from the pedophile or homosexual contingent because he believed in their importance to understanding the entire spectrum of male sexual impulse.

Kinsey died before William Masters and Virginia Johnson opened American consciousness about sex even farther, but his work was instrumental in getting America to where it is now. If you’re outraged by the sexual norms propagating our mass media outlets, you may have Kinsey to blame.

But consider the alternative. Without Kinsey, we may still find Sunday sermons denouncing the creation of a zipper as a means to quicker sexual gratification.