July 25, 1997

Alive and Kicking

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

creen acting that transports you into the skin of a character is so unusual that when encountered, it can actually be unsettling. And in "Alive and Kicking," a British drama set in a dance world decimated by AIDS, Jason Flemyng gives a performance of such fiery visceral intensity that there are moments when you feel you are inhabiting his H.I.V-infected body.

Flemyng's character, Tonio, is an arrogantly saucy artiste of mercurial temperament who has lost a lover (and who, in the film's early scenes, loses his mentor and best friend) to AIDS. He is also a shameless flirt who stalks about with the imperious flounce of the young Rudolf Nureyev. Tonio refuses to take drugs to help fight the disease lest they interfere with his dancing. (The story, set in 1995, makes no mention of the new protease inhibitors that have rendered thousands of AIDS patients asymptomatic). A fatalist, he has decided to keep on dancing for as long as he can and hope for the best.

One night at a disco, Tonio meets Jack (Antony Sher), a stocky, balding older psychotherapist with a large AIDS clientele. These two opposite personalities begin a wary courtship that eventually lands them in bed. In the stormy love affair that develops, Jack, who is H.I.V.-negative, proves as needy and vulnerable as Tonio. A heavy drinker who has absorbed too much of his dying patients' rage, he is prone to throwing ugly drunken tantrums. The heart of the movie is an exploration of the relationship between these two volatile, complicated, self-absorbed individuals.

When "Alive and Kicking," directed by Nancy Meckler from a screenplay by Martin Sherman, focuses on the deepening bond between Tonio and Jack, it goes further than most films in portraying the texture of an adult relationship. Flemying and Sher brilliantly evoke the power struggles, insecurities and conflicts of a passionate attachment with a painfully clear time limit.

The love story is set against the identity crisis of Tonio's mostly gay dance company, whose cranky founder, Luna (Dorothy Tutin), appears to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The deaths from AIDS of so many of the company's creative spirits have left it directionless and unable to develop new work. Tonio is chosen as one the lead dancers for the company's official swan song, a revival of an acclaimed early work that is explicitly homoerotic. One of the original lead dancers (Philip Voss), now retired and in his 60s, is brought in to help reconstruct it.

"Alive and Kicking" has its weak and even embarrassing moments. A running subplot that follows Tonio's friendship with a lesbian dancer named Millie (Diane Parish) feels tacked on, and a scene in which they try to push their friendship into the sexual realm becomes a tedious, silly game of show and tell. You don't believe for a minute that people as sexually self-aware as these two would fool themselves into attempting such an adolescent experiment. The dialogue in the dance rehearsal sequences has strained arty pretentiousness. And late in the film, the story makes a corny leap that gives Tonio's final stage performance an unnecessary fillip of melodrama.

The movie is most affecting when it isn't cranking up the histrionics. As Tonio reminds Jack more than once, a dancer's body is all he's got. "Alive and Kicking" confronts the terror, rage and helplessness of knowing that the body you have honed into a fine artistic instrument is in the process of betraying you.

ALIVE AND KICKING
Rating: "Alive and Kicking" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has several short scenes of its lovers in bed.

Directed by Nancy Meckler; written by Martin Sherman; director of photography, Chris Seager; edited by Rodney Holland; music by Peter Salem; production designer, Cecilia Brereton; choreography by Liz Ranken; produced by Martin Pope; released by First Look Pictures. Running time: 100 minutes. This film is rated R.

Cast: Jason Flemyng (Tonio), Antony Sher (Jack), Dorothy Tutin (Luna), Philip Voss (Duncan) and Diane Parish (Millie).