Great Gay Movies: Kinsey
Kinsey, generally best known as a sex researcher who gave us the zero to six scale to describe sexual orientation, actually started his academic career studying gall wasps. The film takes us through the childhood that led to this, as well as his academic transition from the study of bugs to the study of people.
Played with warm, understated grace by Liam Neeson, Kinsey is presented to us as a man who yearns for and thrives when connecting to others, yet just isn’t very good at it. Critiqued by those around him as too “churchy” and “square,” his difficult childhood and obsessive scientific nature makes him often awkward, frequently cold and at times very harsh (the real Kinsey was known for having a significant temper, and while there are instances of it in the film, it is considered minimized here).
As the film progresses we are presented with the evolution of Kinsey’s research, as well as of his interpersonal relationships (highlighted by astounding performances from Laura Linney as his wife and Peter Sarsgaard as a beloved research assistant), which increasingly become a part of the research itself. This is handled particularly deftly in the film, and is, I felt, one of the stand out points of interest in it.
Also shown at every turn is the public reaction to Kinsey’s work, and most of it is shock, outrage and anger. What is perhaps most astounding in these sequences (which are peppered with a number of fine, fine character performances including Oliver Platt, Tim Curry and Dylan Baker) is just how little things have changed and the degree to which simple knowledge has the capacity to outrage.
A key device used in structuring this film are the Kinsey interviews themselves. Every one of these moments is touching, without being heavy handed and many of them are also extremely funny. Certainly they underscore what is ultimately the film’s final conclusion, that the only constant, the only normal in human sexuality is variation and individuality. In the process of arriving that this point, the film makes the understated case that our label-driven society (gay, straight, bisexual) is extremely artificial, inaccurate, and ultimately detrimental.
At its release the film significant controversy because of its content, which does include academic photos of the sex act, frequent and frank discussions of all kinds of sex, male full-frontal nudity, men kissing and so forth. But the film really makes no judgment on any of this, which I suppose to people with certain sensibilities is an endorsement. While graphic, the film is always tasteful, and I must note that it’s nice to see real people with real bodies on display in a major film.
Ultimately, this is a kind, gentle film about all the ways (and not just sexual ones) in which human nature makes us uncomfortable. It’s one of the loveliest things I’ve seen in years.
