‘Kinsey’ offers smart, sophisticated look at sex

Coming soon to theaters

KINSEY, written and directed by Bill Condon, 118 minutes, rated R.

The new movie “Kinsey” is a quick, satisfying two hours of watching people talk about sex, explore sex and have sex. And not just any people. The movie is based on the life of zoologist and sex researcher Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey (Liam Neeson), the Bowdoin graduate who shook the world in 1948 with the publication of his book “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” and again in 1953 with the publication of its companion book, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.”

Fueled by Kinsey’s frank, nonjudgmental interviews with thousands of U.S. citizens about their sex lives and sexual habits, the books stunned, liberated, validated and bothered plenty.

And why not? When Kinsey began his research in the late ’30s, the United States was steeped in the sort of sexual repression that found some college-age adults believing that babies popped out of belly buttons, and others believing that oral sex could get one pregnant.

This air of ignorance was so pervasive that society, stunted by its puritanical roots, wasn’t ready for the open conversation about sex that Kinsey offered. Some would argue it still isn’t.

As written and directed with great energy, sensitivity and wit by Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters”), “Kinsey” examines the researcher’s life with a smart, sophisticated script that’s worth savoring.

Told in flashback, it follows Kinsey’s life from his childhood in Hoboken, N.J., where he was raised by a cruel, moralistic father (John Lithgow) for whom sex was a filthy act, to his unconventional marriage to Clara McMillen (Laura Linney), his rise to national prominence as a researcher of gall wasps and then of sex, his unusually close relationships with his students (Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton), and his fall into ruin.

Condon navigates it all with affection. He doesn’t deify Kinsey – too many flaws for that – but he does try to give the man his due in spite of the air of hysteria that still plagues Kinsey and his work.

Kinsey’s approach to studying human sexuality has long been controversial, even among his most liberal of supporters – he believed sexuality could be measured solely by scientific means, thus negating emotions.

But Condon sees the bigger picture. Kinsey’s research allowed millions to feel guiltless about their sex lives and fantasies, thus allowing them to lead fuller lives. He put sex on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, in living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms, and he sparked the conversations that followed. As such, he was partly responsible for the sexual revolution.

As Kinsey, Neeson reclaims the greatness that defined him in “Schindler’s List.” He is excellent here, passionate and intense. His performance doesn’t trump Leonardo DiCaprio’s winning turn in “The Aviator” or Jamie Foxx’s transforming performance in “Ray,” but he will join them in being nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming awards shows. Linney will have her day, as well. As Clara, she paints a vivid portrait of a woman so far ahead of her time, she’s even ahead of our time. She is the movie’s balance, the one element that keeps “Kinsey” grounded even as Kinsey himself teeters over the edge.

Grade: A

On video and DVD

HERO, directed by Zhang Yimou, written by Li Feng and Wang Bin, 99 minutes, rated PG-13. In Chinese with English subtitles.

What grabs you in Zhang Yimou’s Academy Award-nominated “Hero” isn’t the story. What leaps off the screen is Christopher Doyle’s astonishing cinematography, the superlative action sequences, and the vivid colors of a world uniting just as it threatens to bust apart.

This is the most expensive movie in Chinese history and it shows, costing a reported $30 million to make. While that figure might seem low by Hollywood standards, consider that “Hero” benefits enormously from sets no studio could afford to buy or authentically create – the landscape and architecture of China, all of which serves as its stunning backdrop.

Set more than 2,000 years ago, the film follows the potential unseating of King of Qin (Chen Daoming), who is working to become China’s first emperor while three assassins are working overtime to assassinate him. To kill them, the king has offered a formidable bounty, with Jet Li’s Nameless arriving early in the film to explain why he deserves it.

Uncoiling in a sort of altered consciousness, the movie splinters time, weaving in and out of the past and the present as Nameless recounts his ascension as a master assassin. The film has too many layers to generate the real heat it needed to be great, and its support of Qin, a tyrant, leaves a bad taste.

Still, it does have moments that are visually great, such as a high-flying fight atop still waters, a blazing blast of swordplay amid a mass of swirling autumn leaves, and a final scene of loss in a hail of arrows whose power is only matched by the plunge of an unexpected suicide.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at Rotten

Tomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.