Gay jeffrey

It was such a wonderfully insane experience!”

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Also suitable for watching with our chosen family. How else would Jeffrey have seen the error of his ways? Can Jeffrey fight his fear?

First off, the play was better.

I had meant to watch it for years, but it was a "gay" film, a genre which I love, but often eschew because these films always make me think--even "La Cage aux Folles" had a deep and abiding lesson or two hidden inside.) The themes often involve intolerance, and the traumatic impact of AIDS on the entire gay community; even if the film is a comedy, I find these themes fill me with empathic pain and frustration.

Also the scenes with Olympia Dukakis, Sigourney Weaver and Nathan Lane are great! Then he meets handsome, hunky Steve (Michael T. Weiss) and falls in love. Michael T. Weiss however has just been diagnosed as HIV+. That’s not to say joy was absent entirely, but few dared to see the funny side of living through this era, except for one often overlooked comedy simply named Jeffrey, which first opened in theaters on August 18, 1995.

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One is mortified that the condom broke, another suggests that they just cuddle, “like little bunnies or little babies,” and the third goes so far as to investigate Jeffrey’s entire medical history, complete with proof of recent bloodwork.

Second, Weber is miscast. However, he's put to the test when he meets Steve (Michael T. Weiss), an attractive man he later learns is HIV-positive, forcing him to confront his fear of falling in love with someone in the face of inevitable death. Also a great romantic ending with a few nice, long kisses. Steve Weber is a hoot and there is no doubt in my mind that the other actors had a blast working in this flick.

That’s not all though. But it’s hard being gay and hard, even when the specter of death looms large. 

What follows is a bold, surprisingly irreverent comedy about AIDS that breaks the fourth wall at any given opportunity, like when Jeffrey practically barks at Weiss’s Steve as the rest of the frame freezes so only we get to witness his horniness in full. 

Then there’s the moment when Steve (rather brazenly) asks what would happen if they kissed right there in the gym in front of everyone.

Third, the direction is really off. While Jeffrey served as both a satire of the AIDS epidemic’s influence on American culture at large (which provoked an attitude that pitied the AIDS victim while at the same time fearing him, thus reducing the humanity of those afflicted by HIV/AIDS), it offered a light-hearted and honest-to-goodness funny portrayal of the pitfalls of the modern gay experience — a sensibility that had become a trademark of Rudnick’s writing style.

Previously in Was It Good For The Gays:
Heavenly Creatures
Gayby
Mysterious Skin
The Object of My Affection
But I’m a Cheerleader
Keep the Lights On
Philadelphia
The Birdcage
Brokeback Mountain
The Children’s Hour
In & Out
Cruising

Like what you see?

Carrie Bradshaw could never. 

Speaking of treasured gay icons, the one and only Christine Baranski shows up briefly at a “Hoe-down for AIDS,” because where else would she be? It's the least convincing scene in the movie. Darius dies of AIDS, but Steve doesn't.

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Photos: Everett Collection