KINSEY

Director: Bill Condon (The Others, Gods and Monsters)
Starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard

Here we have a sort of a sexed-up "A Beautiful Mind", with it's weirdo professor making it big. It turns out that that can be quite a lot, though. Although not as compelling as Russell Crowe's schitzophrenic professor in Beautiful Mind, Liam Neeson as the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey is interesting if not as introspective. Neeson very much loses himself in the role - there is no more that you can ask. His performance was borderline Oscar-worthy. If this is a good year, no nod. If a weak one, Liam my find himself a nomination. The film itself is also interesting, although it left me feeling somewhat short-shrifted. Sex is such an overwhelming topic, that I simply expected more than I got from this film. Apparently, sex is good and fun, Puritanism is bad, and no one should get hurt due to it. However, defining those gray borders where pain supercedes pleasure is a little too difficult for this film. Kinsey homosexually cheats on his wife, and after crying a bit, we find out how happy she is when the same man lays her (with her husband's knowledge). Apparently, free love must be the answer to mankind's sexual morass, huh? Yep, that is a lame argument if ever there was. Dispite this, there was still much to enjoy and a fair amount to learn. Laura Linney also gave an excellent portrait of Kinsey's wife. Her performance was nearly the match of Neeson's.

Standouts: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, acting in general.
Blowouts: Some silly thematic material. Free love anyone?

Grade: B+

GOTHIKA

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz & Thom Oliphaunt (Kassovitz is one of France's best young directors - La Haine, more, Oliphaunt has no major film work)
Starring: Halle Barry, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Dutto

Here is some run-of-the-mill psychological thriller fare if ever there was. The plot: Halle Berry is a psychiatrist at a hospital for the criminally insane (gotta love it, right?). Without warning she becomes insane and is admitted to her own hospital. Eventually this leads, via a lot of ghostly encounters, to a deviant sex/murder ring involving a couple of the major characters. Okay, I'm not sure if I want to go into all of the silly plot points, but this said silliness really does add up to a mountain of absurdity. This movie, frankly, wasn't put together very well. There must have been a dozen places where I shook my head at the weird action choices that the characters were making. Despite this I can't claim this was a completely awful picture. I was in fact fooled by a twist or two, and there was some occassional creepy camera work mixed in with the standard thriller shots - some of which I recognized as taken directly from other recent movies (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL for instance). No, this was not a good movie, but it was not quite as awful as the poorly constructed plot seemed to indicate.

Standouts: I can't think of anything.
Blowouts: Let's just say "plot" and leave it at that.

Grade: C