A stolid, thoughtful movie about a stolid, thoughtful man (albeit with a kinky side), Kinsey is one of those movies that I saw months ago but simply couldn’t think of anything to say about. It’s well made, interesting, moving, often funny – it’s just kind of dull, in an eminently competent way. While it provides a welcome and amusing education in the sexual ignorance of not-so-very-long ago – and gives us a taste of what we might expect from the fundamentalist Puritans who seem to think they have some sort of mandate to impose their corrosive “morality” on the rest of us – it doesn’t make much of a lasting impression.
The acting is fine – especially deserving of
notice is Peter
Sarsgaard, excellent as always, as one of Kinsey’s researchers. Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, as the Kinseys,
have good chemistry, in a science-geek kind of way.
Some of the casting is entertaining just for
itself: squeaky-clean Chris O’Donnell
talks graphically about sex, while that sweet transvestite Tim Curry
indignantly harrumphs as an uptight professor.
Meanwhile, John Lithgow reprises his Footloose
persona as Kinsey’s father, an upright preacher who inveighs against
dancing.
I recommend it, if only to piss off conservatives.
Finding Neverland
is much more openly sentimental, and I guess
I’m getting soft, because I liked it better.
It had a heart, which may be what I found missing in Kinsey.
Johnny Depp is terrific as Peter
Pan author J.M. Barrie; even his gently Scottish burr sounds
authentic. Kate Winslet has a wonderful,
tart brightness that she manages to keep sparked even during her
character’s
illness. I was far less enamored of the
children playing the boys who inspire Peter
Pan. The youngest is utterly
talentless yet has an inordinate number of lines.
Finding Neverland
is beautifully made and deftly handles what could have been banal
clichés – the
disintegrating marriage between Barrie and his wife (nicely played by
Radha
Mitchell); the overbearing, overprotective mother (Julie Christie in
this
thankless role is also wonderful). Forewarned
about the sentimental ending, I was prepared to hate it – but I
succumbed. Yes, okay – I cried. But, as I’ve said before, I don’t mind being
manipulated if it’s done well, and Finding
Neverland does it beautifully. (I
did leave the theater with alacrity once the credits started to roll,
thanks to
this warning in a Premiere article:
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