Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2004)
34 j U S t O U t • novembet 19. 2004 j eatingout e a tin io u t eating out FILM eatingout ........▼.......... MON - FRI 6AM - 2 : 3 0 PM SAT & SUN 7 : 3 0 - 2 : 3 0 PM BREAKFAST ALL DAY! C A F E Best Breakfast & Lunch! 22 01 N Killingsworth Let's talk about sex Alfred Kinsey biopic has a disturbing timeliness by Between North Gay & Gay " k • I .„ • ♦ '• /A ' ■ - - •;> V - • ;■ \ À , '•* regional italian dinners i; ' v •“ Y J *i.\ * an .. kitchen Sunduy-Thursduy .).\W-9:00/mi 1230 nw hoyt I portlam l Friday-Saturday 5:30-10:00pm 5 0 3 -2 4 1 - 8 8 0 0 utvu'.frutollicuciuu.com mmm GROLLA R e s tau ra n t & \J\Jme £ )a r J oin oZl ¿^iótro Ifìfìordaye 3 0 1 S £ . Wlorriion Op*n Sn/gn 2)aifS a 2)inngr: Sun-Dkur. 6p.m.-2a.m. us for GAY HAPPY HOUR T hursdays 9 to 1 1 Uri. & S a t. 6p .m.-4a. m. featuring live jazz with |im Soloway J L c k Won Ur,. II.-30-2 special small plates menu 503.234.1324 2-950 N E L K illin g s w o rth 3 * * » T D X ‘y 0 5 .A-9 5-9 "y 21 w w w .grolla.net m ontaci.cdifSgarcli.com modern m eals Kids eat for $11 New seasonal menu Mostly vegetarian options 3024 ne alberta Portland or 41211 S03 33S %133 irector Bill G in Jon made waves in 1998 extent, the lives of his sex research team. N ee with Gods and Monsters, an imaginative son perfectly captures the impatience, bullish biography of gay Hollywixxl director James ness, zealotry and blind faith of this man as he Whale. Six years is a long time between takes on a whole culture of ignorance. How features, hut Kinsey was well worth the wait. ignorant? Some of the questions students ask This hiopic of Alfred Kinsey, the famed hi for his “marriage” class include “C an you get sex researcher of the 1940s and ’50s, is excel syphilis from a whistle?” and “C an’t oral copu lent on all counts. All the actors are first-rate, lation be injuriousr hut Liam Neeson particularly deserves an Oscar But as he finds out, people are less pre for a gripping, absolutely grounded perfonn- dictable than wasps, the subject of one of his ance in a difficult role. It’s not easy finding the textb<x)ks. For one thing, there are always human being in a single-minded zealot, hut going to be casualties. Kinsey’s son is embar- Neeson does it. Kinsey’s name once drew shud ders from the bluenoses and snickers from sophisticates, both of whom scoured his groundbreaking Kxiks like 1948’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and 1953’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Ferruile for naughty hits. But Kinsey was no pomographer, nor (despite claims by the lunatic right Laura Linney and Liam Neeson measure up in Kinsey that persist tixJay) did he encourage any kind of nonconsensual rassed and alienated by the frankly sexual din relationships. Above all he was a scientist who ner table conversation. And disaster strikes believed sexuality could he studied and when members of his research team ignore his explored like any other human trait. He railed rule to avoid sexual relationships with each against the absurd repressions in American s<x:i- other. But, typical of the contradictions of the ety, against “morality disguised as fact.” And he man, he breaks this rule, nx), succumbing to a was adamant in insisting that homosexuality seduction by his fetching assistant Clyde Mar was as normal as heterosexuality at a time when tin (Peter Sarsgaard)— though seduction may such statements amounted to blasphemy. not be the right word, given Kinsey’s lingering He practiced what he preached, too. He glances at Clyde’s nude body after a shower. and his wife, Mac, had an open marriage that T he film focuses intensely on the sometimes involved sharing the same man. “marriage of equals” between Kinsey and O f course, he suffered from attempts to suppress Mac, a relationship as much intellectual and his work— including charges of communism spiritual as sexual, as Kinsey feels he must during the Red Scare days and the loss of a cru live the kind of life of openness and maturity cial Rockefeller Foundation grant that funded he argues for. M ac’s vacillating moods as her husband pulls her into this uncharted territo ry, which threatens to bring not only shame but possibly jail time, are convincingly co n veyed by Laura Linney. In addition to fine performances and a compelling story line that jumps all over the place w ithout losing the viewer, Kinsey has a disturbing timeliness. T he atmosphere of repression it shows seems to have returned with a vengeance. Kinsey's sex research team: From left, Dagmara Dominczyk, Timothy W ith crazy Christians Hutton, Julianne Nicholson, Peter Sarsgaard, Heather Goldenhersh now fighting even such and Chris O'Donnell taken-for-granted bene his original work. Bur he refused to apologize fits of m odern society as birth control, not to for it and never wavered in his beliefs and his m ention gay rights, the film makes it clear willingness to voice them. All this history is that we could use another Kinsey. J H dramatically delivered by Kinsey. As played by Neeson, Kinsey is a larger- G ary M orris is a Portland free-lance writer than-life figure who dominates the film, as he whose hobby is unsticking the pages of his copy of apparently dominated his family and, to some the Kinsey Report. D r is to r a n t □ G ary M orris
