Almost a breakthrough for queer cinema: a homosexual cater-waiter in New York City swears off sex in the AIDS-era but soon finds himself falling for a hunk who is HIV positive. Paul Rudnick adapted his own play for the screen, allowing his gay characters to act upon their desires and not just whine about them (which is what cramped the film-version of "Torch Song Trilogy"). Yet, the tone of the picture wavers as if the filmmakers weren't sure whether they were doing a fanciful comedy, a satire, a tragi-comedy with pathos, a revue, or a love story in the more traditional sense. The central leads (Steven Weber and Michael T. Weiss) are handsome and charming, but the intrusive star-cameos (directed broadly for big laughs) do not work. A semi-serious movie about tentative gay love can always stand a sense of humor (self-effacing or otherwise), but hamming and camping gets old pretty fast. ** from ****
Review of Jeffrey
