| In the film "Kinsey," when someone suggests a movie | | | | Kinsey's cross-country interviews reveal parents |
| of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's book, he replies, tongue in-cheek | | | | beating and shunning their own children for sexual |
| in-joke, "I can't think of anything more boring." He's | | | | behavior.That said, "Kinsey" doesn't seem to advocate |
| almost right. Kinsey was an academic, a pedant, and | | | | total permissiveness. Even Dr. "Don't be judgmental" |
| perhaps that's why "Kinsey" is so monotone and | | | | Kinsey and one of his assistants strive to maintain |
| almost sterile in its approach to such an explosive | | | | objectivity when interviewing Kenneth Braun, a subject |
| subject.Explosive? In the Paris Hilton/Desperate | | | | they've courted for a decade because of his |
| Housewives/"red state/blue state" era? Isn't our | | | | meticulous cataloguing of his sexual history. Braun, was, |
| DAILY discourse already oversatiated with sex?Yes | | | | apparently, a major source of data for Kinsey.Although |
| and no.There are still "don't go there" areas--the | | | | the scene is only eight minutes long, it's easily one of |
| Michael Jackson case proves that. The debate over | | | | the most powerful in the entire movie, thanks to the |
| gay marriage. Our furor over Monica Lewinsky. On the | | | | casting of gifted character actor William Sadler as |
| other hand, we have gotten more permissive: "Closer," | | | | Braun. Sadler, who has a history of playing villains ("Die |
| an exploration of infidelity, edges out "Kinsey" in the | | | | Hard 2"), convicts ("The Shawshank Redemption"), and |
| Academy Awards, with the exception of a Best | | | | shady characters ("Rush"), and even frank sex talkers |
| Supporting Actress nod for Laura Linney. The | | | | ("When did you last have an orgasm?" he asks his |
| academic tone may have had something to do with | | | | daughter in the short-lived series "Wonderfalls"), ably |
| it.When I finally watched "Kinsey," it was preceded by | | | | and unflinchingly choreographs his way through Braun's |
| a promo for "Inside Deep Throat," referring not to Pat | | | | litany of perversions (sex with children, animals, and |
| Buchanan (who denied in a live appearance of the | | | | seventeen members of his family) with bare, raw |
| McLaughlin Group I attended in Palm Springs, California, | | | | honesty. In an extremely bold move even for today's |
| that he is the "Deep Throat" of the Watergate | | | | audiences, the script has Braun prove he can get an |
| scandal) but to the adult movie starring Linda Lovelace, | | | | erection within ten seconds and achieve onanistic |
| which Nixon campaigned against--only to have "Deep | | | | self-satisfaction. While Kinsey's assistant decides |
| Throat" (the source) become his undoing.Alfred Kinsey | | | | Braun is a little too repugnant, Kinsey maintains his |
| would find this prelude to his biopic appropriate. Let's | | | | "professional distance" until Braun challenges Kinsey's |
| hope he'd like Liam Neeson, who manages to rise with | | | | own orthodoxy by insisting that Kinsey's doctrine is "if it |
| passion above the sterile, shrink (as in | | | | feels good, do it." Since Kinsey is never clear on his |
| psychotherapist)-wrapped Hollywood approach to a | | | | own doctrine, it's no wonder he reacts badly to Braun. |
| subject that still, frankly, makes us uncomfortable. | | | | Braun derides him as "square."But for all this, Kinsey's |
| Witness the furor over Janet Jackson's "wardrobe | | | | story, which begins with one of Kinsey's assistants |
| malfunction." The amoral industry that spends billions | | | | (Chris O'Donnell, shedding his clean-boy image) |
| trying to titillate us can't quite get past the conventions | | | | interviewing him and providing a framing narrative for |
| it thinks it flouts. Which perhaps is just as well. As the | | | | the movie, is one of love--love for his subject, love for |
| superb Laura Linney, playing Clara "Mac" Macmillan | | | | Mac, and just possibly, learning to love himself. "When it |
| explains to her husband Al after he informs her of a | | | | comes to love, we're all in the dark," he explains. He's |
| homosexual affair with one of his researchers (Peter | | | | taught this lesson by the magnificent Lynn Redgrave, |
| Sarsgaard), "Did you ever think that those strictures | | | | for whom his book has made a difference. "Thank |
| are there to keep people from getting hurt?" (Mac | | | | you, Dr. Kinsey," she says. "You saved my |
| gets her own back when the same swinging assistant | | | | life."Perhaps "Kinsey" might seem a bit of "same old |
| asks for a little fun with her.)Perhaps the point of the | | | | same old" in our jaded culture. But the movie reminds |
| movie is that sometimes we go too far both in the | | | | us of our common humanity, and if we have to talk |
| applying of those strictures and in the loosening of | | | | about sex and wasps to realize that, it's worth the |
| them. Kinsey's father, played as skillfully as usual by | | | | price of admission.Movie reviewer/screenwriter Kristin |
| John Lithgow, belittles his wife, daughter and son, but | | | | Johnson composes personalized poems, speeches, |
| proves to have been a victim of parental torture | | | | toasts, vows, and family memories. Visit to order your |
| himself with regard to sex. Interestingly, the father-son | | | | personalized memories. She is also co-author of the |
| friction spans four generations of the Kinsey family | | | | Midwest Book Review "enthusiastically recommended" |
| when Kinsey starts to pick on his own son. "Have you | | | | pick Christmas Cookies Are For Giving: Stories, |
| learned nothing? Nothing?" Mac exclaims.Then there is | | | | Recipes and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts |
| the homosexual man who Kinsey interviews. While | | | | (ISBN: 0-9723473-9-9). A downloadablemedia kit is |
| childhood is pretty darn short these days the idea of | | | | available at our Web site, or e-mail the publisher () to |
| the young man's father and brother branding him for | | | | receive a printed media kit and sample copy of the |
| prepubsecent same-sex exploration seems excessive. | | | | book. |