From Deseret News archives:
Jeffrey
Story begins as a farce but turns into campy tragedy drained of all humor. Spoofy skits are uneven.
Film review
"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.
Comments
Cast: Steven Weber, Patrick Stewart, Michael T. Weiss, Bryan Batt, Sigourney Weaver.
Find a Movie Theater
- Two American pilots die in Iraq 12:47 a.m.
- Murder suspect is vetran, avid skier 12:47 a.m.
- MLB: Zambrano's mom kidnapped 12:32 a.m.
- Lambert surprisingly tops news 12:25 a.m.
- Philadelphia transit strike ends 12:25 a.m.
- TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd 12:24 a.m.
- 12 high schools ready for 'The Turf' 12:17 a.m.
- RSL unfazed by conference final 12:17 a.m.
- Korver and Miles to be evaluated 12:17 a.m.
- Today on TV 12:13 a.m.
- Gay advocates trek to LDS office
216 - House passes health care bill
201 - Lobo suspended
173 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
151 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
129 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - Thousands protest health bill
102 - Provo company innovating engines
101 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89 - BYU cuts Women's Research Institute
88
STOP blaming the Democrats, BLAME THE REPUBLICANS FOR 8 YEARS DOING NOTHING...
The best way to break the law is to become someone who enforces the law.
It's a real shame so many folks have never gotten out and gotten to know the...
It's all talk... you do not have any evidence for your claims. You assume...
Maybe if you could bat .408 in the major leagues, you too would be paid a...
I prefer the “Wizard of Earthsea” quartet by Ursula Le Guin, an...
The bottom line question that no one can possibly answer is; what will be the...
It looks to me like special treatment.
Jazz will have a tough week, with what should be a easy win against the...
I am very excited for this game. As much as I want the Utes to win, it won't...




You can be the first to comment on this story.