Kinsey 2004

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: I can't imagine the performances, or much else, being improved on. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Smart, eloquent and refreshingly free of condescension, Kinsey makes clear we'd all be a lot worse off without him. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's the biography of a sex pioneer disguised as a love story, or a romance with some rather intriguing side issues, and it begins with one of cinema's more intriguing pickup lines: 'I've been reading up on gall wasps.' Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: A moving and often very funny look at an unlikely revolutionary. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a film Kinsey himself might have appreciated: It's sober, never flashy or exciting but always engrossing, both for its penetration into Kinsey's psychology and for the effects his findings are shown to have on the world and the people around him. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Occasionally melodramatic but extremely well-made. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: [Neeson] makes the movie better than it is by filling in the rough patches with a portrayal so committed, so nuanced, that this may be the role he's remembered for (and which may finally win him an Oscar). Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Succeeds, in part, because the film is as non-judgmental as the famed sex researcher himself. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Condon sketches in the sexually benighted pre-World War II era with amusing and alarming touches. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: The biopic succumbs to a paint-by-numbers feel as it dutifully touches the highs and lows of a life that can't easily fit within two hours. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Kinsey does its subjects -- human, biological and psychological -- justice. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Not only does Kinsey flow with the purpose of biographical narrative, it provides a compelling portrait of a momentous shift in American culture. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: When it comes to Kinsey the man, as well as 'Kinsey,' the shorthand for his research, the name still has the power to arouse. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Whether you see the man as a serpent bearing fruit or a beacon in the wilderness, it's hard to deny that Kinsey is a highly intelligent and thoroughly engaging film. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The camera is poignantly turned on Kinsey himself, to probe what transformed him from a repressed nerd into the sexual radical he became. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: A $10-million movie that looks like it was made by Hollywood's biggest spendthrift, Kinsey is full of delicately wrought moments. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's a new Neeson as Dr. Alfred Kinsey, all spiky-haired and harried, and he's enormously appealing in the role. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Kinsey is not easy to like as a person, but Condon has done such a good job of filling in the doctor's psychological backstory that we understand his single-minded determination to suss out every last detail of human sexuality. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The great thing about Kinsey is the triumphant way it entertains, informs and electrifies us with the highest values of traditional cinema while opening our hearts and minds with the liberating potential of human diversity. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Though it has its share of carnality, Bill Condon's wise and witty biography of the sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey is, above all, an intellectual turn-on. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Admirably adventurous. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's delightfully playful for a serious movie, balancing glib wit against its pathos and controversy. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although the strength of Kinsey is the subject matter, it would be criminal not to note the fine performances of Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, who imbue their characters with humanity and likeability. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The 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. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: You don't need to know much about the real Kinsey to sense that the one we're getting here is both more palatable and less interesting than the real thing. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Kinsey is a stupendously moving film. Neeson nails Kinsey's rock-hard decency and fragile ego, and Linney abets him beautifully. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Neeson pulls off something of a miracle here, creating a flesh-and-blood character who is innocent and obsessive, decent and selfish, committed to expanding the boundaries of knowledge but sadly lacking emotional wisdom. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Straight from the first frames, writer-director Bill Condon adroitly tackles the problem that all biopics about accomplished people invariably bump up against: How to marry the life to the work, dramatizing one without slighting the other? Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The humour is rich but never bawdy. Read more

Time Out: The shame is that the film doesn't convey more mess or danger; its sex and its politics are almost entirely dinner-table-friendly. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: An interesting life story told in a fun, disarming way. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Opening 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. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: A convincing picture of an America semiconsciously cowered in fear and ignorance about sexuality. Read more

Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post: There's a flatness to the filmmaking; what's needed here is a lot more va-va in its va-va-voom. Read more