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The film version 0/Jeffrey offers lots of laughs
and wonderful performances , despite its faults
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Donald Falk
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effrey, the long-awaited screen version of
Paul R udnick’s award-winning off-
Broadway stage hit, turns out to be the
bright comic romance that Portl and ’ s gay
and lesbian community has needed all
summer. It’s likely to pack Cinema 21 for weeks.
The smash hit production and revival of the stage
play at Don Horn’s triangle productions! has stimu­
lated a great deal of local interest for the big-screen
transfer.
J
Includes tax
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1
honors as the HIV-positive hunk. He- makes his
character a three-dimensional keystone to the film.
The comic center of the film, however, is Patrick
Stewart, the celebrity icon best known for his work
on Star Trek: The Next Generation. As Sterling,
the flamboyant interior designer, he gets the film’s
best one-liners—and the film’s most poignant
scene.
Bryan Batt is great as Sterling’s boyfriend
Darius. The only member of the original New Y ork
cast to recreate his role, Batt gives the Cats-ad­
dicted dancer a wonderfully developed boy-toy
quality. “Who’s Ann Miller?” shouldn’ t be a howl­
ing comic line, but in Batt’s delivery it is.
The stage play used only one woman to play all
of the female characters in Jeffrey. For the film
version, director Ashley casts a wonderful assort­
ment of Hollywood’s best character actresses.
Sigourney Weaver was the first “name” to sign
on (and validate the low-budget work in the eyes of
her Hollywood peers). She gets some good mo-
Like the original stage play, the movie sets out
todo the impossible—create a comedy about AIDS.
Rudnick, who adapted his stage script for the film,
pulls off an incredible balancing act. He keeps the
comedy flowing and yet builds three-dimensional
characters and manages to make their situations
touching. This is, after all,
a comedy about AIDS. Not
AIDS in the Abstract—this
is AIDS In Your Face,
HIV-Positive Boyfriends,
S o m eo n e’s-G onna-D ie
AIDS. And it succeeds.
Retaining the original
stage concept of having Jef­
frey talk directly to the au­
dience, Rudnick and direc­
tor Christopher Ashley
make that awkward cin­
ematic gimmick work most
of the time. The quick
blackouts of the 1993 stage
version and the multiple
characters played by just
one actress in the stage
script are sacrificed for the
big screen, but the casting
of numerous Hollywood
Christopher Ashley (standing) directs Michael T. Weiss (left) and Steven
“names” in cameo roles
Weber
balances the loss.
ments as the New Age queen, but director Ashley
Jeffrey, as he tell us, is just a typical young New
allows the scene to go on much too long.
York gay man “who’s had sex with 5,000 other
Academy Award-winning Olympia Dukakis
men” in the last 18 months. “I love sex,” he
and her “preoperative transsexual lesbian son”
confesses in his opening line. As he becomes
steal the Lesbian and Gay Pride rally scene. Debra
terrified about the possibility of becoming HIV
Monk is great as Jeffrey’s sex-supportive mother,
positive, he decides to just be celibate. "Easy,” he
and
Kathy Najimy gets a few good moments in the
says.
religious rally. Christine Baranski has fun as the
But of course, it’s not so easy. Jeffrey joins a
hostess for the Hoe Down for AIDS. Nathan Lane
gym and meets Mr. Right. He’s handsome, he’s
steals every minute as the on-the-make Catholic
hot, he’s hung—and he’s HIV positive.
priest. His performance couldn’t be bettered.
Jeffrey’s best friends, a wonderful swishy inte­
Jeffrey is not without faults. While title cards
rior decorator and his dimwitted HIV-positive
and blackouts give the episodic tale a structure,
boyfriend, who’s proud to be a dancer in Cats, try
director Ashley often doesn’t have control of the
to convince Jeffrey to get on with life. “Hate AIDS,
film’s flow. Some characters are skimpily devel­
not life,” they implore him. “Think of AIDS like
oped, and many sequences go on too long. Two key
the guest who won’t leave. Remember, it’s still our
scenes from the stage play are cut for timing, but
party.”
tighter editing and pacing would allow at least
Jeffrey isn’t sure. He rejects the hunk, joins a
Jeffrey’s initiation into the Lower Manhattan
12-step program for sexual compulsives, gets
Gentlemen’s Masturbation Society to be restored.
propositioned by a Catholic priest who’s addicted
It was filmed but ended up on the cutting room
to sex and Broadway show tunes, works a Hoe
floor. Plot-wise, many lesbian film fans will won­
Down for AIDS, seeks out a New Age guru, and
der why Jeffrey and his large circle of gay buddies
finally calls home for advice. In a wonderfully
have no contact with or friends in the lesbian
funny deadpan scene, his parents suggest he “join
community.
a jerk-off club, try phone sex.” His mother spreads
As it is, Jeffrey offers a lot of laughs, some
birthday-green cake frosting as she casually asks,
introspective moments and even a few tears. It’s a
“Are you a top or a bottom, dear?”
film that works best with a large audience. It’s a
The cast, all of whom worked “for next to
film to see—and see early in the run before all the
nothing” to bring the “unfilmable” project to the
one-liners are appropriated for cocktail conversa­
silver screen for about $1.8 million, does outstand­
tion.
ing work. Steven Weber, best known as the lady­
killing pilot on the long-running television series
Jeffrey opens Sept. 15 at Cinema 21, 616 NW
Wings, does solid work in the title role. He may not
21st Ave. in Portland. Call the theater at
be the ideal Jeffrey, but he is cute and likeable.
223-4515fo r show times and prices.
Michael T. Weiss walks off with the acting
PHOTO BY MICHAEL GINSBERG
32 T i
I