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88This hip, highly partisan biography of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey is a surprisingly entertaining movie about the perils of studying sexual behavior in a sexually uptight culture--our own.
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88Linney is a match for Neeson, and the only thing that might keep Lithgow from getting a supporting-Oscar nomination is the brevity of the part.
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100One of the year's most satisfying films.
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100The strength of Kinsey is finally in the clarity it brings to its title character. It is fascinating to meet a complete original, a person of intelligence and extremes.
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88The movie's scientific content is so fascinating that it almost feels like a bonus that Kinsey himself is such an intriguing figure.
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88It's as purely entertaining as it is thought-provoking and timely.
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88As superbly crafted -- as good -- as this movie is, Condon never really owns up to the cloud of pessimism at its center.
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75The movie's style is fairly staid, but it's hard to imagine how Neeson could be better, and the subject is handled with taste and tact.
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75This is a fine motion picture with a couple of superlative performances. It is arguably the best, most honest bio-pic of the year.
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50The movie dramatizes a social-sexual sea change with an out-of-control blend of cartoon farce and melodrama and clinical, often ludicrous sex scenes.
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80It is Condon's adroit handling of the subject matter and the caliber of performances within that carry it above the norm.
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80A deftly directed, superbly acted and occasionally witty biopic which is not afraid to engage with the complexities of its central character.
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60By focusing on one period in his life, this film chronicles the bulk of Kinsey's experiences while barely scratching the surface of his personality.
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67Kinsey is too tasteful by half, and while it may have its gentle charms, it never thrills.
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91Kinsey is patient and educational and never (darn it) rude or shocking.
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90The movie's strength lies in its portrayal of a many-sided genius, as manipulative as he was charming and persuasive, monomaniacal to a fault, generous and sweet yet utterly clueless about the emotional havoc he wrought in the name of science.
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90Intelligently written and directed with a pleasing frankness by Bill Condon and well played by Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and a strong supporting cast, the film skillfully uses the forms of old Hollywood to tell a story that would have given heart failure to Harry Cohn and his fellow tycoons.
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90Mr. Condon's great achievement is to turn Kinsey's complicated and controversial career into a grand intellectual drama.
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90A stupendously moving film. Neeson nails Kinsey's rock-hard decency and fragile ego, and Linney abets him beautifully: There isn't an actress in movies right now who's more simply alive.
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90Playful and happy and even naughty. It's partly a scientific brief, partly a song of sex, and it's enormously enjoyable.
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80The movie wants to entertain and educate, not leer, about people flummoxed by participating in a revolution they had meant only to calibrate, and at that it succeeds handsomely.
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70For a film about man who spent half his life defying staid convention, Kinsey remains as timid as a choirboy.
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70If only Condon kept up the Q&A format, because when he ditches it the movie turns flat and familiar.
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70Throughout the film a question tugs at the viewer. Kinsey's work was inarguably important, but his life is not especially interesting.
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60Condon's tone is gentle and lifeless and at times baffling: The picture is a weird cross between clinical and whimsical.
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For all its explosive material, this is a fairly straightforward telling.
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60Apart from some unexaggerated notations about American puritanism in the 1940s and '50s, this is more a work of exploration than a thesis, and Condon mainly avoids sensationalism.
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88Scrappy, funny, hot-to-trot biopic.
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88The face-to-face interviews laced throughout the movie are fascinating and often laugh-out-loud funny. Ask people to talk dirty and you don't know what they'll say.
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88Those who aren't inclined to lambaste will surely have some stimulating conversations after the film is over.
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75Compared to "Ray," which takes Ray Charles' unique life story and manages to make it feel like a cliche, Kinsey is total sophistication and nuance.
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75It's sober, never flashy or exciting but always engrossing.
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75A mature biopic as entertaining as it is timely.
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83Controversy aside, there's no denying that Kinsey was a pivotal figure in 20th-century America, and one whose fascinating story makes for a fascinating film.
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75Condon's direction is steady and fearless, Neeson and Linney are individually excellent and together they create an inspiring chemistry for a truly adventurous marriage.
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90Liam Neeson has never had a richer character to play on screen -- including his landmark role in "Schindler's List" -- and has never displayed such formidable energy and virtuosity.
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80Lively, sometimes funny and, inevitably, provocative.
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80If it lacks a certain fuzzy warmth, Kinsey makes up for the shortfall with spirited and (for a commercial movie) amazingly candid vigor. It's an alert, lively movie with a crackling performance by Liam Neeson.
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It's a new Neeson as Dr. Alfred Kinsey, all spiky-haired and harried, and he's enormously appealing in the role.
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70Opening too late for the election but still one the year's most politically relevant movies, Condon's earnestly middlebrow biopic is an argument for tolerance and diversity.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 39
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Mixed: 2 out of 39
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Negative: 2 out of 39
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AbbyL9Very complex and interesting view.
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TonyS.10