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In the film "Kinsey," when s meone suggests a movie of Dr. Alfr d Kinsey's book, he replies, tongue n-cheek in-joke, "I can't think of nything more boring." He's almost right. K nsey was an academic, a pedant, and p rhaps that's why "Kinsey" is so m notone and almost sterile in its pproach to such an explosive subject. Expl sive? In the Paris Hilton/Desperate Housewives/"red st te/blue state" era? Isn't our DAILY d scourse already oversatiated with sex? Yes and no. Th re are still "don't go there" reas--the Michael Jackson case proves that. The d bate over gay marriage. Our furor ver Monica Lewinsky. On the other h nd, we have gotten more permissive: "Cl ser," an exploration of infidelity, edges out "K nsey" in the Academy Awards, with the xception of a Best Supporting Actress nod for L ura Linney. The academic tone may h ve had something to do with it. Wh n I finally watched "Kinsey," it was pr ceded by a promo for "Inside D ep Throat," referring not to Pat B chanan (who denied in a live ppearance of the McLaughlin Group I ttended in Palm Springs, California, that he is the "D ep Throat" of the Watergate scandal) but to the dult movie starring Linda Lovelace, which N xon campaigned against--only to have "Deep Thr at" (the source) become his undoing.
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Alfred Kinsey would find this pr lude to his biopic appropriate. Let's h pe he'd like Liam Neeson, who m nages to rise with passion above the st rile, shrink (as in psychotherapist)-wrapped Hollywood pproach to a subject that still, fr nkly, makes us uncomfortable. Witness the f ror over Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." The moral industry that spends billions trying to t tillate us can't quite get past the c nventions it thinks it flouts. Which p rhaps is just as well. As the s perb Laura Linney, playing Clara "Mac" M cmillan explains to her husband Al fter he informs her of a h mosexual affair with one of his r searchers (Peter Sarsgaard), "Did you ever th nk that those strictures are there to k ep people from getting hurt?" (Mac g ts her own back when the s me swinging assistant asks for a l ttle fun with her.) Perhaps the p int of the movie is that s metimes we go too far both in the pplying of those strictures and in the l osening of them. Kinsey's father, played as sk llfully as usual by John Lithgow, b littles his wife, daughter and son, but pr ves to have been a victim of p rental torture himself with regard to s x. Interestingly, the father-son friction spans f ur generations of the Kinsey family wh n Kinsey starts to pick on his own s n. "Have you learned nothing? Nothing?" Mac xclaims. Then there is the homosexual man who K nsey interviews. While childhood is pretty d rn short these days the idea of the y ung man's father and brother branding him for pr pubsecent same-sex exploration seems excessive. Kinsey's cr ss-country interviews reveal parents beating and sh nning their own children for sexual b havior. That said, "Kinsey" doesn't seem to dvocate total permissiveness. Even Dr. "Don't be j dgmental" Kinsey and one of his ssistants strive to maintain objectivity when nterviewing Kenneth Braun, a subject they've c urted for a decade because of his m ticulous cataloguing of his sexual history. Br un, was, apparently, a major source of d ta for Kinsey.
Although the scene is only ight minutes long, it's easily one of the m st powerful in the entire movie, th nks to the casting of gifted ch racter actor William Sadler as Braun. S dler, who has a history of pl ying villains ("Die Hard 2"), convicts ("Th Shawshank Redemption"), and shady characters ("R sh"), and even frank sex talkers ("Wh n did you last have an rgasm?" he asks his daughter in the sh rt-lived series "Wonderfalls"), ably and unflinchingly ch reographs his way through Braun's litany of p rversions (sex with children, animals, and s venteen members of his family) with b re, raw honesty. In an extremely b ld move even for today's audiences, the scr pt has Braun prove he can get an rection within ten seconds and achieve nanistic self-satisfaction. While Kinsey's assistant decides Br un is a little too repugnant, K nsey maintains his "professional distance" until Br un challenges Kinsey's own orthodoxy by nsisting that Kinsey's doctrine is "if it f els good, do it." Since Kinsey is n ver clear on his own doctrine, t's no wonder he reacts badly to Br un. Braun derides him as "square." But for all th s, Kinsey's story, which begins with one of K nsey's assistants (Chris O'Donnell, shedding his cl an-boy image) interviewing him and providing a fr ming narrative for the movie, is one of l ve--love for his subject, love for M c, and just possibly, learning to l ve himself. "When it comes to l ve, we're all in the dark," he xplains. He's taught this lesson by the m gnificent Lynn Redgrave, for whom his b ok has made a difference. "Thank y u, Dr. Kinsey," she says. "You s ved my life." Perhaps "Kinsey" might s em a bit of "same old s me old" in our jaded culture. But the m vie reminds us of our common h manity, and if we have to t lk about sex and wasps to r alize that, it's worth the price of dmission.
The article Can We Not Talk About Sex?: A Review of "Kinsey" was Submitted by Kristin Johnson through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Movie reviewer/screenwriter Kristin Johnson composes p rsonalized poems, speeches, toasts, vows, and f mily memories. Visit http://www.poemsforyou.com to order your personalized memories. She is also co-author of the Midwest Book Review "enthusiastically recommended" pick Christmas Cookies Are For Giving: Stories, Recipes and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts (ISBN: 0-9723473-9-9). A downloadablemedia kit is available at our Web site, http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com , or e-mail the publisher (info@tyrpublishing.com) to receive a printed media kit and sample copy of the book. More articles available at http://www.bakingchristmascookies.com
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