JEFFREY
A film review by Lee Harrington
Copyright 1995 Lee Harrington
1995, Orion Classics. Dir.: Christopher Ashley. Screenplay: Paul Rudnick, adapted from his play.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Vito Russo's seminal THE CELLULOID CLOSET makes the point that, until recently, most films which deal with homosexuality at all were not made by gay filmmakers for gay audiences; rather, they were made by straight filmmakers for straight audiences. Russo quotes directors and stars over and over again asserting that their films were "not about homosexuality -- they are about loneliness." It is not until we get into the Age of AIDS that we get gay directors making films for gay audiences which assume a gay point of view or "sensibility," which he describes thus:
People say that there can be no such thing as a "gay
sensibility" because the existence of one would mean
that there is a straight sensibility, and clearly there
is not. But a gay sensibility can be many things; it
can be present even when there is no sign of
homosexuality, open or covert, before or behind the
camera. Gay sensibility is largely a product of
oppression, of the necessity to hide so well for so long.
It is a ghetto sensibility, born of the need to develop
and use a second sight that will translate silently what
the world sees and what the actuality may be. It was gay
sensibility that, for example, often enable some lesbians
and gay men to see at very early ages, even before they
knew the words for what they were, something on the
screen that they knew related to their lives in some way,
without being able to put a finger on it.... It said,
this has something to do with your life, and it was a
voice that could not be ignored, even though the pieces
did not fall into place until years later."
While there have been a number of lesbian films released recently, cinema today still has difficulty in dealing with male homosexuality. That this is true may have to do with the way straight males fantasize about lesbians, or with the fact that Hollywood is still a bastion of power for straight men who cannot accept male homosexuality -- or their own -- because "gays are the manifestation of what stands between men's complete love for other men and their acceptance of women as friends." (In a curious way, then, it's linked to misogyny.)
Paul Rudnick's JEFFREY means to change all that. In one of the sliest bits of reflexivity I've seen in films, director Christopher Ashley turns the camera on the "audience" after a very hot male-male kissing scene early in the film and catches the reactions of two teenage couples. (It's a wondrous assumption that they might consider JEFFREY a "date movie.") The guys are gagging, the girls are going "Aw...," which is exactly what you might expect, and the actual audience at the benefit screening last night was on the floor in hysterics. (Rudnick confided to me at the post-screening reception that this was his favorite bit in the film, too.) While there have been several noteworthy films and teleplays dealing with AIDS (like AN EARLY FROST, LONGTIME COMPANION and PHILADELPHIA), they have dealt in a mostly serious way with the tragedy and loss so many of us have endured, and they take the HIV+ point of view.
JEFFREY inverts all that, taking an HIV- point of view to a degree, and using (as Jeffrey says to muggers who ask him if he has any weapons) "irony, adjectives and eyebrows" to make its life-affirming point, as weapons against despair. The hero is a gay man who is afraid of commitment, and who's equally afraid of AIDS; he's afraid of relationships partly because he doesn't want to invest any emotion in someone he's going to lose, but that's just copping out. His promiscuity before he decides to give up sex "because it's too dangerous" merely reflects on his inability to connect with another person at all.
WINGS' Steven Weber does an excellent job of portraying Jeffrey's anxiety and superficiality. Michael T. Weiss, playing his would-be boyfriend, radiates head and life while giving poignancy to the hurt and frustration of being rejected because of his HIV status. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Patrick Stewart lends grace and authority to Sterling, Jeffrey's "grand old queen" of a best friend, and practically steals the movie without resorting to shallow stereotypes. Bryan Batt is touching as Sterling's chorusboy lover. Cameos by Nathan Lane as a priest-on-the-prowl; Olympia Dukakis as the mother of a male-to-female transsexual lesbian; Sigourney Weaver as a Marianne Williamson-type in-your-face televangelist; and Kathy Najimy as one of her followers are all wildly funny.
But the real star of JEFFREY is Rudnick's writing. He adapted the play to the screen himself, and does an outstanding job of interweaving exterior scenes, fantasies and stage-like asides into a cohesive, brilliantly funny, and very insightful screenplay. While he never loses sight of the tragedy of AIDS, and the very real toll it takes on human life and relationships, he manages to find humor in situations often treated seriously (if not dismally) in other films.
From the opening montage of Jeffrey attempting to have safe sex with a number of men (look for the man protected by Saran Wrap for a real belly laugh); to the phone call to his parents (who are so much cooler than he is, so much more knowledgeable about safe sex, phone sex and the rest, that he hangs up, mortified), and Jeffrey's encounter with his priest (who shows him the face of God on the cover of the original cast album of MY FAIR LADY), Rudnick's screenplay and Ashley's direction take us on a relentless, wildly comic ride for nearly two hours. While much of this film may go over the heads of straights, there is enough here done with love and affection to please most audiences.
When I was talking with Rudnick at the reception, we lamented the lack of male-male kissing even in gay films, and he said that while writing the play he pondered what would be the most objectionable thing to a straight audience (male-male kissing, of course), and decided to put it in as early as possible, so that people could get over it and into the real text. That device really works here, and by the end of the film, what you have seen is a story about life, love and relationships. An inability to commit to a relationship is hardly confined to gays; or, as they have always said, "This film is not about homosexuality -- it's about loneliness."
1 August 1995 San Francisco, CA
-- Lee Harrington
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