Jeffrey

Dir: Christopher Ashley

1995

****

1995’s Jeffrey is Paul Rudnick’s feature adaptation of his hit stage show that was off-Broadway a couple of years previous. Director Christopher Ashley wisely keeps the theatrical elements of the show and essentially expands the stage rather than turn the story into a real life drama. It takes a serious issue and tackles it with love, charm and intelligence. The story is about Jeffrey (played by Steven Weber), a gay man and self-confessed lover of sex who has, until now, enjoyed many a sexual encounter. However, the film is set during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and Jeffrey finds that the dangers have ruined his favorite past-time for him, so he decides to give up sex for good, although he knows it will be tough. However, as soon as he is sworn off sex he meets Steve (Michael T. Weiss) at his local gym – the man of his dreams but HIV positive. Jeffrey’s life becomes conflicted and he confides in his best friends Sterling and Darius (Patrick Stewart and Bryan Batt) – a couple of ten years, Darius having HIV himself. The forth wall is broken several times throughout the film as Jeffrey tries to come to terms with his predicament and his dreams and fantasies often become the reality. When he’s not being rescued by Mother Theresa, he’s appearing on quiz shows and in Cowboy and Indian themed musicals. It isn’t until Darius himself dies of his illness and visits Jeffrey does he become sure of his own feelings. We soon learn that It isn’t the fear of the illness that concerns Jeffrey, it is the idea of loosing someone he loves and watching them suffer that he is not sure he can bare. It is a film full of emotion and it is probably the best way I have seen the subject handled. I think the film was overshadowed somewhat at the time by the fact it starred Patrick Stewart in his first role since the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation but those who saw it were pleasantly surprise, and although he’s great in it, he certainly isn’t the star of the show (Star Trek fans might be interested to know that Stewart used the often sad script of Jeffrey to produce the appropriate feelings necessary for weeping during the scene in Star Trek: Generations where he finds out that his family back on Earth has perished in a fire). Stewart, Weber, Weiss and a whole host of supporting actors such as Christine Baranski, Sigourney Weaver, Ethan Phillips, Olympia Dukakis and Nathan Lane are all great but it is Bryan Batt as Darius the ‘Cats’ dancer who steals the show. His words to Jeffrey from beyond the grave are some of the most touching lines from a script I can remember (“Just think of AIDS as the guest that won't leave, the one we all hate. But you have to remember: Hey! It's still our party”), Jeffrey isn’t just a gay film (and gay isn’t a genre by the way) it’s a romance, universal and romantic – as all romances should be. It is pure theatre but it is still amazing how light and funny the film manages to be, while also being heartbreakingly sad. The ways the film breaks the fourth wall and turns into a musical is very clever, it can feel a bit disjointed at times – and for any other film this would be a problem, but the overall feel of the film is established fairly early on and it works really well. I think its success is partly because Christopher Ashley was the original director during the stage production and playwright Rudnick also wrote the screenplay. It’s a show that transcended into the big screen without any of the usual adaption problems, all that was different was the actors (apart from scene stealing Bryan Batt) and the budget – although this was still rather small. I’m not sure how Jeffrey is viewed within the gay community – I’d like to know – but personally I don’t know why it isn’t seen as something as a cult classic by now. It’s no Hedwig and the Angry Inch but it has heaps of charm and is one of the few convincing romantic films of the mid-90s that I can think of.