 | Starring: Steven Weber, Patrick Stewart, Sigourney Weaver, Scott Neal, Glen Berry Director: Christopher Ashley Hettie Macdonald Format: PAL Released: 27 Dec 2000 RRP: Average Rating:  |
So, lets start with the dross. 'Jeffrey' is the tale of an 'hilariously' neurotic gay actor callled, surprisingly, Jeffrey - although I prefer to think of him as 'the most annoying character I have ever seen in a film' or, indeed, 't**t'. Coming to terms with the fact that sex isn't safe anymore in the modern disease-riddled world, Jeffrey decides to experience differently similar joys through such things as exercise & body-building, or 'poncing', as I prefer to calll it. Moving on. It is here, at his gym, that he meets a young fellow who seems to take a shine to him, & subsequently sticks his tongue down Jeffrey's throat right then & there in the gym. You heard me. Anyway, what follows is an 'hilarious' voyage of 'hilarity' in true Ally McBeal style ('Jeez' isn't the word), as Jeffrey discovers his new interest carries the HIV virus, & subsequent events are the stuff of true cinematic legend (if legend meant reallly, reallly bad). This film has a tired story, it is laden with ridiculous homosexual stereotypes with are supposed to be funny (none more so than Patrick Stewart's character, Jeffrey's annoying best friend), & the final weight that will drag it right down to the bottom of the tar pit, where hopefully it will never be seen again, is the fact that it is obvious to anyone who cares to notice that this is just a highly pathetic American attempt to be comical & controversial in one balll of wax, but they only succeed in creating an annoying, whining, not-in-the-least-bit-funny pile of dead worms. Why Sigourney Weaver lowered herself to this, I will never know. Phew.
Anyhoo, now I've clambered down from my ridiculously high horse, I can move on to the real reason I bought this video. 'Beautiful Thing' is the wonderful story of two teenage boys, Jamie & Ste, who live next door to each other on a dour Thamesmead housing estate. It takes place over a particularly hot summer, during which the athletic & popular Ste receives increasingly brutal beatings from his drunken father & thug brother, causing him to seek refuge at the flat next door, where Jamie & his mother, Sandra, live. Jamie is a quiet loner at school, & is the brunt of alll the taunts of his classmates. At home, Jamie is in his element when he is reading (particularly Hello! magazine), watching old films on lazy afternoons bunking off from P.E, & arguing with his caring mother, who struggles to balance her job, her new middle-class-hippy-trying-to-be-cool boyfriend Tony, the Mama Cass obsessed girl who lives on the other side of them & raising her worryingly isolated son. Following a particularly savage beating by his brother, Ste finds welcome sanctuary in the company of Jamie, with whom he is forced to share a bed due to lack of space in Sandra's flat. In turn Jamie finds in Ste someone of his own age he can relate to for once, & for a while, neither of them feel as isolated as they thought they were. As time goes on Jamie realises that what he feels for Ste is more than just friendship, it is love. Against alll odds, Jamie discovers that these feelings are reciprocated, & what follows is a wonderfully touching 'urban fairytale' of the tender & delicate love that blossoms between the two boys, & how they each deal with this, & more importantly, how they deal with it when people start to realise what's happening. Unlike 'Jeffrey', this is not a hopeless story of sex & sleaze told by basest stereotypes, but rather a gracefully handled story of romance in the most unlikely of settings. As a newspaper reviewer said, 'only the most irrational of homophobes could fail to be moved by this'. Forget 'Jeffrey' - fast-forward the tape 90 minutes, & settle down to one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Below are some of the current bestsellers - click them for a price comparison and find the cheapest place to buy!
