Kinsey

Writer-director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Chicago screenplay) always finds a way to seamlessly marry the crux of his story to the strengths of his medium. In Kinsey, he revitalizes the gimmick of on-camera interviews with his characters, mirroring the working style of his subject, legendary sex researcher Alfred Kinsey--who interviewed thousands of Americans about their bedroom predilections in the 1940s and '50s to compile his groundbreaking, comprehensive, and certainly controversial studies on the subject. Composing the film around an interview with Kinsey (Liam Neeson), Condon cues flashbacks of an upbringing under the fire-and-brimstone hand of a preacher father (John Lithgow), introduces the equally clinical-yet-passionate student who becomes his wife (Laura Linney), touches on the man's own pseudoscientific dalliances and their promiscuous effect on his marriage, and sets the stage for the studies that helped launch the sexual revolution. The topnotch cast (including research assistants Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O'Donnell, and Timothy Hutton) give their all, but Condon is sometimes clumsy with metaphor, occasionally falls back on pedestrian staples of the biopic genre, and doesn't adequately explore the results of and reactions to Kinsey's work. Although imperfect, Kinsey is certainly engrossing. Recommended. [Note: Available in either a single-disc (with both widescreen and full screen versions) or double-disc special edition, DVD extras include audio commentary by writer/director Bill Condon on both versions, and for the special edition, the extensive 84-minute "making-of" documentary “The Kinsey Report: Sex on Film,” 25 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Condon, a featurette with footage of the actual Kinsey Institute (7 min.), a gag reel (3 min.), an interactive sex quiz, and trailers. Bottom line: the special edition is impressive for this fine film, one of 2004's better entries.] (R. Blackwelder)