Kinsey MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 1/2 Content: -4

This biopic of scientist Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson), whose controversial research and sensational report on male sexuality in the 1940s shocked the world, is part educational and part titillating. Dr. Kinsey grows up in a strict, religious family, where sexual thoughts and urges are suppressed. After he becomes a highly respected biology professor at the University of Indiana, one of his brilliant students, Clara (Laura Linney), falls hard for the shy, intense professor, and they marry. The difficulty that the newlyweds experience on their wedding night leads Dr. Kinsey to an obsessive study of the human body. He discovers how ignorant most married couples are and begins to lecture on sexuality to audiences of engaged or married couples. Graduate students assist him in interviewing thousands of people about their most intimate behavior, feelings and expectations. Also starring Chris ODonnell and Timothy Hutton.

Unfortunately, the message Dr. Kinsey delivers in his report is much more than the mechanics of sex. In response to the sexual guilt imposed on him by his father (John Lithgow), he wants people to celebrate sexuality without regard for morals or religion. He and Clara experiment, both becoming sexually involved with his assistant Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard). Dr. Kinsey and Clyde are shown having sex with full frontal male nudity. Later Clara has an affair with Clyde with the knowledge of her husband. The intense research stimulates others on his staff to have adulterous relations. Clinical lectures with graphic illustrations, frank discussions of sexual techniques and male and female anatomy win Dr. Kinsey both friends and enemies. He pioneers a sexual revolution that lacks basic Christian ethics: monogamy, self-control and responsibility.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Fox Searchlight