Jeffrey

Jeffrey lives in New York and is so afraid of contracting AIDS that he decides to give up sex entirely. The week he decides, he meets Steve: handsome, interested, exactly what he wants. When he learns Steve is HIV positive, his fear and his desire meet head on. The film handles that bind as comedy rather than tragedy. Paul Rudnick adapted his own play and Christopher Ashley directed. The telling keeps breaking its own form: characters address the camera, scenes turn into television programmes, reality and fantasy trade places. Making a film about AIDS in this register in 1995 was a bold choice. Steven Weber plays Jeffrey and Michael T. Weiss plays Steve. Patrick Stewart carries the heaviest section as Sterling, a decorator whose partner is dying of the illness; Bryan Batt plays the partner, and Sigourney Weaver appears briefly. Who it's for: Viewers who like 1990s queer comedy, narratives that play with form, and heavy subjects handled through humour. Who it's not for: The comic register alongside this material does not work for everyone, the stage origins show, and some of the jokes have dated.