Jeffrey

"Jeffrey" begins as a farce with serious undertones and gradually becomes a tragedy drained of all its humor, as what was probably whimsical and lively in its stage form becomes labored and campy as a movie.

Steven Weber (playing a 180-degree switch on his womanizing character in the TV sitcom "Wings") stars in the title role as a gay waiter in New York who aspires to be an actor and who has become absolutely phobic about sex in this era of AIDS.

Early in the film, Jeffrey vows celibacy — but it isn't long before he's tempted to break that vow after meeting a hunk at the gym. The feelings of Steve (Michael T. Weiss) are mutual, but when he finally breaks Jeffrey down, Steve confesses to being HIV-positive.

This causes Jeffrey to back off and run scared, though his good friend Sterling, an interior designer (played by "Star Trek: The Next Generation's" Patrick Stewart) tries to convince him that one cannot live a full life in fear.

In and around this unconventional love story, however, the film is at heart a series of spoofy skits that allow screenwriter Paul Rud-nick (who adapted his own play) to take potshots at insincere AIDS benefits, insincere New Age self-help gurus and insincere 12-step programs, as well as the Catholic Church and other institutions he feels need deflating. Some skits are better than others, but the style does little to break down the sense that the material is still quite stagebound. Ditto having Jeffrey speak to the audience while actors around him freeze.

Some of this is amusing but most simply isn't funny enough to support off-the-wall antics laced with poignancy (like a game-show lampoon hosted by Robert Klein). This is especially true as the film gets deadly serious in its second half — and, oddly, some of the film's more dramatic moments are even campier than the humor.

Rudnick's humor (at its best with one-liners) can also get quite nasty and go too far, as during a fantasy telephone conversation between Jeffrey and his parents, and when a gay priest (Nathan Lane, who cavalierly suggests that all priests are gay) makes a pass at Jeffrey, while explaining religion in Broadway musical terms. (Kathy Nijimy, Olympia Dukakas and Sigourney Weaver also show up in brief cameos.)

The performances are all quite good, with Weber, Stewart and Bryan Batt (as Stewart's lover, a longtime "Cats" cast member) standing out in the first-rate cast.

"Jeffrey" is rated R for violence, sex, profanity, vulgarity.