The Last Supper

An unflinching portrait of a man's final hours. The camera never leaves the room where Chris, withered by AIDS, wishes his life to be terminated after a last supper with his partner (Nicholsen). It's a tribute to Roberts and McDougall (who died four days after filming) that the film's power derives less from the latter's physical condition than from his persisting dignity. In body, Chris looks and sounds barely human; in spirit, he transcends his affliction, particularly in two set-pieces: a dance he performs, with white death- mask and carnations, to 'Dido's Lament' (a riveting sequence that puts the comparable scene in Philadelphia in the shade), and the candle-lit song during which he passes away. A simple but devastating study of the human condition in extremis: grit your teeth and go see.