Jeffrey

Having just watched this movie for the first time, some six years after it's making, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Patrick Stewart almost steals the show with his impeccable delivery of the acerbic wit written into his character.

But what I really want to talk about is the strong resemblance of the story, in its flavor and its excesses, to a story originally written by Damon Runyon known to most people today as the Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls." Both stories come across via the broad strokes of a comic book come to life. And indeed, one wonders that Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows couldn't take "Jeffrey" and work it over into a '90s "Gays and Dolls" without too much trouble. The movie already has its start in that direction with the rodeo dance number serving as the "dream ballet" sequence requisite of every self-respecting stage musical.

The point I'm making is that every fictionalized reality (an oxymoron if there ever was one) requires to some extent or another, a "willing suspension of disbelief." Watch "Jeffrey" with the same perspective you sat in the audience and enjoyed "Guys and Dolls" with: Don't look too hard for subtlety here. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the story. After all, even a comic book can have insight and a message.