The best/worst/best thing about "Kinsey" is its openness regarding sex - a topic that somehow still remains taboo in our society. "Kinsey" sets out to prove that sex is part of our humanity, and that our experiences with it are as diverse as our population. It's old news at this point, but it was a big to-do back in the '40s.
"Kinsey" is a biopic. Sigh. For a biopic to stand out nowadays, it must be about someone who has recently died or about someone who is riddled with controversy at every turn. Alfred Kinsey is the latter.
To say Alfred Kinsey is a controversial figure is like saying the sky is big. Controversial seems like too soft a word. But I couldn't find one more fitting in my thesaurus. His theories on human sexual behavior are still being discussed. Which means, as a scientist, he must have done something right. Kinsey (Liam Neeson) penned the book, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," in 1948. But before he decided to full-body-tackle polite society, he was a mere biology professor at Indiana University who studied gall wasps. After an embarrassing wedding night (his wife, Clara Macmillan, is played by Laura Linney), he started to understand that people everywhere were ignorant about sex. One student came to him thinking that oral sex caused a woman to be barren, etc. Kinsey decided to teach a class about sexual behavior, and the enrollment for the class overwhelmed him.
After realizing the need for sex education, he decided to do a study about human sexual behavior. "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was birthed out of that study, as was Kinsey's acceptance of his own homo-curiosity. This curiosity is specifically manifested with one of his students, Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard) in a hot on-screen kiss between them. Sizzle.
After the book was published, Kinsey embraced the chaos that he created, and allowed himself to get sucked into it. Kinsey became so invested in his next project, a book about female sexual behavior, that he made himself crazy over it.
The writer/director Bill Condon is gifted at the biopic, as evidenced by his work on "Gods and Monsters," which landed him a screenwriting Oscar. He seems to understand human behavior in a way that perhaps even Kinsey himself did not.
What makes the movie compelling is that it doesn't belabor all of the scandalous elements of Kinsey's persona that a lot of people would love to see. It shows him as a scientist, a husband, a father, a son and a part-time lover. It doesn't exploit him or put him on a pedestal. It is an honest attempt to tell his story without bias. That, I think, is what gives the film its integrity. The film is also laced with top-notch actors. The gem of the movie, however, is not Neeson or Linney - though they are both great. Sarsgaard (or, for some of you, that guy from "Garden State") steals the show, and his scenes make up some of the defining moments of the film.
All in all, this movie is worth seeing, especially as an academic. Kinsey teaches us that knowledge stems from our experiences and that we do not have to be detached from our humanity because of our scholarly pursuits. Plus, there's lots of sex.