In the film "Kinsey," when smeone suggests a movie of Dr. Alfrd Kinsey's book, he replies, tongue n-cheek in-joke, "I can't think of nything more boring." He's almost right. Knsey was an academic, a pedant, and prhaps that's why "Kinsey" is so mnotone and almost sterile in its pproach to such an explosive subject.

Explsive? In the Paris Hilton/Desperate Housewives/"red stte/blue state" era? Isn't our DAILY dscourse already oversatiated with sex?

Yes and no.

Thre are still "don't go there" reas--the Michael Jackson case proves that. The dbate over gay marriage. Our furor ver Monica Lewinsky. On the other hnd, we have gotten more permissive: "Clser," an exploration of infidelity, edges out "Knsey" in the Academy Awards, with the xception of a Best Supporting Actress nod for Lura Linney. The academic tone may hve had something to do with it.

Whn I finally watched "Kinsey," it was prceded by a promo for "Inside Dep Throat," referring not to Pat Bchanan (who denied in a live ppearance of the McLaughlin Group I ttended in Palm Springs, California, that he is the "Dep Throat" of the Watergate scandal) but to the dult movie starring Linda Lovelace, which Nxon campaigned against--only to have "Deep Thrat" (the source) become his undoing.

Alfred Kinsey would find this prlude to his biopic appropriate. Let's hpe he'd like Liam Neeson, who mnages to rise with passion above the strile, shrink (as in psychotherapist)-wrapped Hollywood pproach to a subject that still, frnkly, makes us uncomfortable. Witness the fror over Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." The moral industry that spends billions trying to ttillate us can't quite get past the cnventions it thinks it flouts. Which prhaps is just as well. As the sperb Laura Linney, playing Clara "Mac" Mcmillan explains to her husband Al fter he informs her of a hmosexual affair with one of his rsearchers (Peter Sarsgaard), "Did you ever thnk that those strictures are there to kep people from getting hurt?" (Mac gts her own back when the sme swinging assistant asks for a lttle fun with her.)

Perhaps the pint of the movie is that smetimes we go too far both in the pplying of those strictures and in the losening of them. Kinsey's father, played as skllfully as usual by John Lithgow, blittles his wife, daughter and son, but prves to have been a victim of prental torture himself with regard to sx. Interestingly, the father-son friction spans fur generations of the Kinsey family whn Kinsey starts to pick on his own sn. "Have you learned nothing? Nothing?" Mac xclaims.

Then there is the homosexual man who Knsey interviews. While childhood is pretty drn short these days the idea of the yung man's father and brother branding him for prpubsecent same-sex exploration seems excessive. Kinsey's crss-country interviews reveal parents beating and shnning their own children for sexual bhavior.

That said, "Kinsey" doesn't seem to dvocate total permissiveness. Even Dr. "Don't be jdgmental" Kinsey and one of his ssistants strive to maintain objectivity when nterviewing Kenneth Braun, a subject they've curted for a decade because of his mticulous cataloguing of his sexual history. Brun, was, apparently, a major source of dta for Kinsey.

Although the scene is only ight minutes long, it's easily one of the mst powerful in the entire movie, thnks to the casting of gifted chracter actor William Sadler as Braun. Sdler, who has a history of plying villains ("Die Hard 2"), convicts ("Th Shawshank Redemption"), and shady characters ("Rsh"), and even frank sex talkers ("Whn did you last have an rgasm?" he asks his daughter in the shrt-lived series "Wonderfalls"), ably and unflinchingly chreographs his way through Braun's litany of prversions (sex with children, animals, and sventeen members of his family) with bre, raw honesty. In an extremely bld move even for today's audiences, the scrpt has Braun prove he can get an rection within ten seconds and achieve nanistic self-satisfaction. While Kinsey's assistant decides Brun is a little too repugnant, Knsey maintains his "professional distance" until Brun challenges Kinsey's own orthodoxy by nsisting that Kinsey's doctrine is "if it fels good, do it." Since Kinsey is nver clear on his own doctrine, t's no wonder he reacts badly to Brun. Braun derides him as "square."

But for all ths, Kinsey's story, which begins with one of Knsey's assistants (Chris O'Donnell, shedding his clan-boy image) interviewing him and providing a frming narrative for the movie, is one of lve--love for his subject, love for Mc, and just possibly, learning to lve himself. "When it comes to lve, we're all in the dark," he xplains. He's taught this lesson by the mgnificent Lynn Redgrave, for whom his bok has made a difference. "Thank yu, Dr. Kinsey," she says. "You sved my life."

Perhaps "Kinsey" might sem a bit of "same old sme old" in our jaded culture. But the mvie reminds us of our common hmanity, and if we have to tlk about sex and wasps to ralize 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 prsonalized poems, speeches, toasts, vows, and fmily 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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