[Neeson] makes the movie better than it is by filling in the rough patches with a portrayal so committed, so nuanced, that this may be the role he's remembered for (and which may finally win him an Oscar).
Kinsey (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:179
Fresh:162
Rotten:17
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: A biopic of the sex researcher is hailed as adventurous, clever, and subversive, with fine performances by Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive sexual content, including some graphic images and description
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 12, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $10,214,647
Synopsis: Academy Award®-winning writer-director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) turns the microscope on Alfred Kinsey in a drama that is at once a portrait of a man driven to uncover the most private... Academy Award®-winning writer-director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) turns the microscope on Alfred Kinsey in a drama that is at once a portrait of a man driven to uncover the most private secrets of the nation, and a journey into the mystery of human behavior. Liam Neeson stars as Kinsey, who in 1948 irrevocably changed American culture and created a media sensation with his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Asking thousands of people about the most intimate aspects of their lives, Kinsey lifted the weight of doubt and shame from a society in which sex was hidden, and knowledge was dangerous. His work sparked one of the most intense cultural debates of the past century – a debate that rages on today. Created by a remarkable roster of talent both in front of and behind the camera, the all-star cast of KINSEY includes Oscar® nominee Liam Neeson (SCHINDLER’S LIST), Oscar-nominated Laura Linney (YOU CAN COUNT ON ME), Golden Globe® nominee Chris O’Donnell (SCENT OF A WOMAN), Golden Globe-nominated Peter Sarsgaard (SHATTERED GLASS), Oscar winner Timothy Hutton (ORDINARY PEOPLE), Oscar nominee John Lithgow (TERMS OF ENDEARMENT), Emmy®-nominated Tim Curry ("Tales from the Crypt"), Emmy nominee Oliver Platt ("The West Wing") and National Board of Review Winner Dylan Baker (HAPPINESS). The behind-the-scenes team on KINSEY includes Director of Photography Frederick Elmes, who has shot many of acclaimed director Ang Lee’s films including THE HULK and THE ICE STORM, and David Lynch’s films including BLUE VELVET, for which he received numerous awards including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography, and WILD AT HEART, which won the Cannes Film Festival Palme D’Or and an Independent Spirit Award. Production Designer Richard Sherman re-joins Condon following their collaboration on GODS AND MONSTERS, as well as several other films. Editor Virginia Katz rejoins Condon for a seventh time, following her work on GODS AND MONSTERS and CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH. KINSEY is a Fox Searchlight and Qwerty Films presentation in association with Myriad Pictures of a N1 European Film Produktions-GmbH + CO.KG and Pretty Pictures production. Gail Mutrux (NURSE BETTY, DONNIE BRASCO) produces and executive producers are Michael Kuhn (THE ORDER, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) of Qwerty Films, Oscar-winning writer/director Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER series, PATTON) and Bobby Rock (JEEPERS CREEPERS II, EVE’S BAYOU) of American Zoetrope, and Kirk D’Amico (TRAUMA, THE GOOD GIRL) of Myriad. [More]
Starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard
Starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker, Kathleen Chalfant, Lynn Redgrave, Veronica Cartwright
Director: Bill Condon
Director: Bill Condon
Screenwriter: Bill Condon
Producer: Gail Mutrux
Composer: Carter Burwell
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Reviews for Kinsey
Succeeds, in part, because the film is as non-judgmental as the famed sex researcher himself.
Liam Neeson’s outstanding performance here, warm, charismatic and smart, is well supported by the other actors.
A fascinating slice of social history and an unsettling look at our indomitable sexual natures.
Neeson and Linney are absolutely marvelous, and the entire supporting cast credible and terrific. Look for Oscar nominations throughout.*
A riveting portrayal of a pioneer who quickly became a political and social target for opening up a hitherto unresearched area of human life.
Intelligent, probing portrait of the man who stuck a needed thumb into the eye of a narrow-minded public.
It's a love letter from a director to a ghost who still hovers over us all.
How strange this moment would seem to Kinsey, whose dedication to science - as a lifelong pursuit, and mode of feeling -- led him to reject so-called "moral" judgments.
There's a flatness to the filmmaking; what's needed here is a lot more va-va in its va-va-voom.
A convincing picture of an America semiconsciously cowered in fear and ignorance about sexuality.
It's the biography of a sex pioneer disguised as a love story, or a romance with some rather intriguing side issues, and it begins with one of cinema's more intriguing pickup lines: 'I've been reading up on gall wasps.'
It's a film Kinsey himself might have appreciated: It's sober, never flashy or exciting but always engrossing, both for its penetration into Kinsey's psychology and for the effects his findings are shown to have on the world and the people around him.
The movie has the crackle of important changes at work, though it tends to slap and tickle its themes.
Condon's understated directing, and thoughtful, funny script are worthy of mention at Oscar nomination time.
Straight from the first frames, writer-director Bill Condon adroitly tackles the problem that all biopics about accomplished people invariably bump up against: How to marry the life to the work, dramatizing one without slighting the other?
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December 16, 2005:
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December 02, 2005:
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November 17, 2005:
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This week's wide releases find us within both a goblet and a burnin' ring of fire. We've got legends, both fantastic ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") and... More...
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