Free | CinemaNow
Posted: 5/27/2012
Liam Neeson stars as Kinsey, who in 1948 irrevocably changed American culture with his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Interviewing thousands of people about the most intimate aspects of their lives, Kinsey lifted the weight of secrecy and shame from a society in which sexual practices were mostly hidden. His work sparked one of the most intense cultural debates of the past century, a debate that rages on today.Using the technique of his own famous sex interviews, KINSEY recounts the scientist?s extraordinary journey from obscurity to global fame. Alfred Kinsey grows up the son of an engineering teacher and occasional Sunday school preacher (John Lithgow). Rebelling against the rigid piety of his home life, and drawn to the world of the senses, Kinsey becomes a Harvard-educated zoologist specializing in the study of gall wasps. After being hired to teach biology at Indiana University, Kinsey meets and marries a witty, free-thinking female student, Clara McMillen (Laura Linney). In the course of his teaching he discovers an astonishing dearth of scientific data on sexual behavior. When students seek him out for advice about sexual concerns and problems, he realizes that no one has done the clinical research that would yield reliable answers to their questions. Inspired to explore the emotionally charged subject of sex from a strictly scientific point of view, Kinsey recruits a team of researchers, including Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard), Wardell Pomeroy (Chris O?Donnell), and Paul Gebhard (Timothy Hutton). Over time they refine an interviewing technique which helps people to break through shame, fear, and guilt, and speak freely about their sexual histories. Kinsey also attempts to create an open sexual environment among the team and their wives, encouraging them to ?swing? years before the sexual revolution of the 1960s. When Kinsey publishes his Male study in 1948, the press compares the impact to that of the atom bomb. Soon Kinsey graces the cover o