Written & Directed by Bill Condon
Outfest Screen Idol Award -- Best
Supporting Actress
Lynn Redgrave in KINSEY
Click to enlarge
Photo by Ken Regan/Fox Searchlight
The film rallies spectacularly at the climax, with a show-stopping cameo
by Lynn Redgrave as a woman giving her sexual history that beautifully puts
the importance of Kinsey's work into perspective.-- Lou Lumenick, New
York Post
Perhaps most touching of all is Lynn Redgrave, whose lovely monologue at
the film's end bestows upon it a closing grace note that moved me to tears
and may (should), even for its brevity, earn her a Supporting Actress
nomination. --Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM
Lynn Redgrave, as a lesbian interview subject, and William Sadler, as an
all-purpose deviant, deliver astonishing cameos.-- Peter Travers, Rolling
Stone
Lynn Redgrave will touch your soul as a lesbian whose testimony to
Kinsey’s research has a life-affirming effect. -- Rex Reed, NEW YORK
OBSERVER
There's a brief, beautiful sequence near the
end, featuring Lynn Redgrave as another sort of late bloomer -- an elderly
woman who, after reading Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, finally comes
to terms with the lesbian feelings she has tried to suppress for decades.
The peerless Redgrave sends us out of the theater in tears of triumph, and
she connects Kinsey's science to a very human face. She shows us that, in
preaching tolerance, open-mindedness and progressiveness, Alfred Kinsey was
really saying this: You're never too old to learn to love yourself. --
Christopher Kelly, Fort Worth Star Telegram
In a touching scene near the end of the film, Lynn
Redgrave plays a woman who tells Kinsey his work freed her from guilt to
love another woman. "You saved my life," she says, her radiantly grateful
face and brimming eyes filling the screen. She gets up and lays her hand on
Kinsey's in quiet communion. It's a sweet, poignant coda for a man who's
near the end. -- Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
Dr Kinsey (Liam Neeson) and his last interview subject
(Lynn Redgrave)
Photo by Ken Regan/Fox Searchlight
I would be remiss if I didn't single out Lynn Redgrave for praise. Her
appearance absolutely floored me, and I think it may be the single most
beautiful scene in an American film so far this year, crystallizing why the
struggle to normalize all the variations in human desire is so important.
-- Moriarty, AINT IT COOL NEWS
Perhaps its most delicious and interesting moments
are saved till the very end, when Lynn Redgrave turns up to offer more
insights into human sexuality. -- Arthur J Pais, Rediff India
Not until he was near the end of his life did Kinsey fully grasp the
value of his work. An older woman (beautifully played by Lynn Redgrave)
tells him of her long marriage, and about finding true love only after
taking another woman in her arms.-- Bruce Newman, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
The most memorable turn is at the end, with Lynn
Redgrave’s impeccable, dignified performance as an elderly lesbian who
credits the doctor’s research with saving her life. -- Kristian Lin, Fort
Worth Weekly
Redgrave’s radiance shines in a closing cameo as a woman whose thanks to
Kinsey are intended to represent all those whose lives were changed by his
studies. -- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
One pleasant surprise is a small but effective cameo by Lynn Redgrave as
Kinsey's final interview subject. In the space of about a minute or two, her character puts all of the
scientist's research efforts into perspective and points out the incredible
changes he evoked in America and the world. -- Robin Clifford, REELING
REVIEWS
It (the scene between Kinsey and his father) is one
of the best movie scenes of the year, but there's an even better one in
"Kinsey," in which a brief, brilliant performance by Lynn Redgrave
illustrates — for Kinsey and for us — what a profound impact he has had. --
Chris Hewitt, St Paul Pioneer Press
Lynn Redgrave is outstanding in a tiny role that sums up the impact
Kinsey had on people—not on scientists, not on the masses, but on individual
Americans. -- Sarah Chauncey, Reel.com
A penultimate scene shows a sick and discouraged Kinsey partially
vindicated after conducting an interview with a once-married middle-aged
woman who has a secret crush on another woman. Haunted by grief, depression
and guilt, the woman was on the verge of suicide when Kinsey’s books came
out. Upon reading them, she discovered that there were many people like her,
giving her the courage to confess her feelings to the other woman, who then
reciprocated with the confession of a secret longing that she too had been
afraid to disclose. Mr. Condon pulls out all the visual stops for this
sequence (the woman is played with intensity and bravura by Lynn Redgrave in
unprecedented close-up), concluding with her grateful grasp of Kinsey’s
hands for saving her life. -- Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER
Liam Neeson, Lynn Redgrave, Annabel Clark and Bill
Condon
On the Set of Kinsey
Photo by Ken Regan
And Lynn Redgrave -- who turned in an Oscar nominated performance in Gods
and Monsters -- appears in a small but crucial scene, vindicating all of
Kinsey's work during his darkest hour. -- Jeffrey M. Anderson,
COMBUSTIBLE CELLULOID
The film’s last sexual interview comes from a once-repressed elderly
lady, who tells the now-aged Kinsey how his book changed her life, giving
her the courage to approach a woman she had long loved in secret. She found
her feelings were reciprocated, and the two women were then currently in a
long term, happy relationship. What gives this admission currency is that the confessing woman is played
by Lynn Redgrave, who has talked freely about the turmoil her father, the
great actor Michael Redgrave, experienced because he lived in a time when he
could not, in her words, "be true to his nature." Redgrave’s appearance here
seems to be her way of telling him she understands what he suffered. --
Boo Allen, DENTON RECORD CHRONICLE (TX)
A brief, brilliant performance by Lynn Redgrave illustrates — for Kinsey
and for us — what a profound impact he has had. -- Chris Hewitt, ST. PAUL
PIONEER PRESS
Photo by Annabel Clark
