Jeffrey

Exasperated by the stresses and contradictions of AIDS-era gay sexuality, Jeffrey (Weber), a New York waiter-cum-actor, decides celibacy is the only way forward. Next thing, of course, he meets Weiss' charming gym trainer, and is hesitating over whether he might just be The One, when a much anticipated date brings the announcement that the object of his desire is HIV-positive. Paul Rudnick's loose but often hilarious screenplay (from his play) adopts a scattershot approach to just about every aspect of the contemporary gay experience: the painful loss of friends and lovers is here, and there's a big showing for New York's Gay Pride march, though it's the sparkling comic set-pieces that leave the strongest impression. There's also a showy cameo for Weaver as the hucksterish self-help guru of Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, and a stand-out routine in gay priest Lane's proclamation that sex and the great Broadway musicals prove the existence of God. On the debit side, not everything adds up, with stage director Ashley ill at ease at the helm, and Stewart rather uncertain as the queeny father figure coping with a crisis of his own.