Kinsey

Okay, so you've seen previews for this movie since late May I suppose and now it's finally coming to theaters in the "Fall" as it was so advertised (my guess is they pushed it out later b/c it was their biggest hope for oscar glory...but that's only a feeble, unenlightened, tiny "hunch-guess"). Anyways, Liam Neeson stars in "Kinsey" and gives a performance no normal Academy Award member would dismiss as a contender for a best actor Oscar (i promise you he will be nominated...if he's not, i will have been wrong). Even if they dislike the movie "Kinsey" as a whole, it would be hard to dismiss Neeson's vulnerable and sensitive plunge into the character and mind and heart of Kinsey.

The movie is kind of funny b/c in parts, it feels so "back then and...that was then and this now" and yet, in much of it, it's seductively riske and shocking...even today. So I know most Christians who see this film will probably hate it b/c they can't discern between the good in it (and there is plenty...wow...lots of great themes running around here that we should be celebrating and rallying behind) and they hate movies when there's any male kissing or full-frontal nudity (Peter Sarsguard...much different than it "Garden State" but still he's great here---Liz, the nude warning is for you...I know how much you love him:) and so, you'll be on your own if you claim to like this one. But I did. There's some stuff in it that bothered me and parts where I felt writer/director Bill Condon (whom I met in person and talked to...golly i feel special) does a little too much proseltyzing of his own 'agenda', but that's minimal. The movie is entertaining, endearing and oddly moving in places it has no right to be. I was especially taken a back by the small running theme of "fathers-and-sons" and how Kinsey's relationship to his father is not far from his own relationship with his own son. I wish the film had done more with that, but with what they did do, it is precious and tender and deeply moving, if only for a few seconds. "Kinsey" probably won't make my 10 best movies of 2004 list but it is up there and it was an overall good movie-going experience and a movie i wish i had seen with others so I could discuss it afterwards. Probably a solid B+ from this end. But see it for yourself and tell me what you think. :)--(P.S.: Bill Condon wrote the screenplay for "Chicago," and wrote/directed the film called "Gods and Monsters" which I happened to enjoy even though it was depressing. This movie is done with that same flare...you can tell...so that's a good thing I guess. When a director's direction is marked in that sort of way.)