Jeffrey . Nashville Scene . 03-23-98

Jeffrey

DIRECTED BY: Christopher Ashley

REVIEWED: 03-23-98

Screenwriter Paul Rudnick's subversive humor is currently flying off video shelves under the blanket of the mainstream comedy In & Out. If you enjoy that film--and for all its faults, it is a sweetly funny tale--you owe it yourself and to Rudnick to check out Christopher Ashley's adaptation of Rudnick's acclaimed Off-Broadway play. Stephen Weber stars as the title character--a closeted gay man with a fear of AIDS and activism. Through a series of black comic fantasies, Rudnick's script satirizes the anxiety of the post-AIDS gay community. Like In & Out (and Addams Family Values and Rudnick's other writings), the film runs on fumes for long stretches; but the performances by Weber and company (including Patrick Stewart as a fiery interior designer and Nathan Lane as a zany gay priest) are engaging, and Rudnick's claim that life can be fun even in the shadow of death is both touching and inspiring.

--Noel Murray

Capsule Reviews
Jeffrey

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