The fest opened officially last night with all of the fanfare and hullabaloo befitting a 40th anniversary celebration. The opening screening was Bill Condon's Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and the always stellar Peter Sarsgaard (as opposed to the sometimes impressive Stellan Skarsgard).
Roger Ebert opened the night by telling tales of early festival special guests like Gloria Swanson, who took a train to Chicago aiming for grand style for her fest appearance. Apparently she claimed the Amtrak experience "made a flyer out of her."
Festival founder Michel Kutza brought his key staff on stage, including programming director Helen Gramates (featured in the latest ChicagoFilm), and talked about the fest judges, which included critical heavyweights of a thoroughly global nature.
"Gods and Monsters" director and scribe Bill Condon then intro'd the film and segued into a warm welcome for marquee guest Liam Neeson. Ebert chimed in with a hearty recommendation for Neeson as an Oscar nominee for his work in the film.
While that struck me as quite a stretch, Neeson did make one hell of an impression. In his short speech, he mentioned that unlike other previous stars, he took a plane to the event. A Lear jet, actually. And he was the only one on it.
Dressed appropriately smooth and ruffled just right, like he had hopped off the cover of Esquire Neeson was incredibly brief in his comments. You kind of got the impression that the fest had been but a hiccup in his Big Willie jet-setting lifestyle. Arrogant maybe, but also kinda cool. No pretensions here - I'm just fucking Liam Neeson - enjoy the film. Later. Priceless.
Kinsey itself was a mixed bag. The film focuses on the life and work of Alfred Kinsey, the sexual behavior researcher responsible for the infamous "Kinsey Report," which radically transformed common public perception about sexual normality for the better. Condon's film is technically fantastic, but frankly a little lacking in the emotional department. The cast is superb. Neeson is as solid as ever and Linney or Sarsgaard are thoroughly on point, but their characters are so hyper-rational that it's difficult to rustle up a connection to them. Ultimately, the obstacle that Condon can't overcome is the subject matter.
Kinsey and his life were simply not particularly likable and his view of sex was thoroughly clinical. Condon addresses this directly in the film (in a scene that reminded me a little of Mike Figgis TimeCode) when he has Kinsey being interviewed by a reporter about whether he thinks they'll ever make a movie of his life. He says he doesn't think it would be much of a film. While "Kinsey" is vastly superior to most megaplex fare, he may have been partially right.
Tonight the real fun begins. Go out there and see some films.
P.S. We're giving away 50 tix to tomorrow night's screening of locally shot Boricua. Want to check it out? Email me.
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