Alive and Kicking (1996)

I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

but new product. a film about gay world, AIDS, dance, vulnerabilities, need of love and protection, shadows of fear and fall. a fragile universe who becomes, in this case, more than link of clichés. because the fundamental note is honesty. the movie is just a confession. not cruel, not pink, not sarcastic, not full of cries. just honest, clear, realistic and profound in basic nuances.a film about connections and fight against sickness. a beautiful occasion to discover the roots of dance as sacrifice, testimony and gift. a film like a drawing. only pencil lines. a sketch like glass door. a piece from a biopsy. and the other like sense of next step. all is in good place - humor, pain, hope, fear, limits, joy as butterfly circle. a film about life. about art. and a man. like part of central character for who death is more than ordinary end.

AIDS movies formed the core of queer cinema ten or twenty years ago, and there were many memorable ones (The Living End, Parting Glances, World and Time Enough...). This British movie came out near the end of that 90s period, just about the time new drug cocktails were beginning to change the life course of HIV sufferers. The movie is set just before that time, and its gay characters are too familiar with the dying of their community. As one of them here says when challenged by a hospital nurse during a friend's last hours, "We've done this before." I first read about this movie in a glowing NY Times review when it received its very limited American release a decade ago, and wished I could see it. Now I have, thanks to Netflix. Though the AIDS epidemic is always in the background, the center of the movie is the unlikely – but all the more believable – relationship between a handsome, sexy young dancer played by Jason Flemyng, and an overweight, alcoholic therapist played by Antony Sher. The actors and the screenwriter take care to help us understand how these two mismatched souls become mates, and in doing so, elicit sympathy for these two deeply flawed individuals. This may have been a low budget indie flick, but it features the virtuoso acting that we so often associate with British thespians, not only from Flemyng and Sher, but in a lovely turn by Dorothy Tutin as a batty old dance company manager who is sinking into dementia even as the younger members of her company are dying off. This all makes the movie sound pretty grim, but in fact it's lively and funny. The movie's chief asset, aside from its performances, is its snappy and sophisticated dialogue by Martin Sherman (who wrote Bent). This is an adult love story, though no one ever says "I love you." The two lovers are both painfully imperfect humans, like all of us, who cannot manage their interactions with anything like the smoothness that psychobabble books (or Hollywood movies) suggest they should. Even the therapist who helps other folks manage their traumas cannot manage his own with grace. The highlights of the movie are the sharply written "duets" between the two protagonists as they navigate their very rocky relationship. My chief reservation about the movie is a plot dive into some sappy melodrama as the dancer's climactic farewell performance approaches, but even so, the movie earns its sentimental wash more than most with the careful, sophisticated development of its characters. I forgave – alright, I even succumbed to – the last act sentimentality. And finally, I can't resist a brief reference to Mr. Flemyng's attractiveness. I first noticed him oozing sex appeal in Stealing Beauty, and then playing the bully villain in Hollow Reed. Alas, in recent years, he seldom seems to turn up on American screens doing anything much worth watching. Pity. He's plenty worth watching in Alive and Kicking.

One thing I look for in a gay based movie is whether the actors either gay or straight, can give a realistic performance. Jason Flayming and Antony Sher gave a convincing dialog, and romantic scene, after scene. All the actors were good and the dance sequences were outstanding, (and I don't like ballet) .The ending dance is very sexy and the cast really seemed caught-up in the dream-like-naked-torso-writhing and really enjoyed themselves.The fact that this was about aids and people dying could have smothered the whole movie, but, it didn't dwell on the morbid, rather it gave everyone hope to carry -on with their lives.Jack knew that if Tonio was not dying, he would not have given him a chance at the romance they have. And Tonio knows that there is a certain infatuation that Jack has for the fact that Tonio is dying.They have their spats and both men need extra room now an then. Jack from the everyday dealings with aids patients (he is a therapist) to Tonio's hurting, aching body and the pressure to perform one last show.I got wrapped-up in these characters and was able to have genuine feelings for them. I saw this on VHS and I understand it is available on DVD which I will add to my collection. ciao yaaah69

This movie turned up late night on Cinemax, and there was nothing else on so I stuck with it. Being an open-minded moviegoer, I wasn't taken aback by the story of this conceited gay dancer who can't imagine letting himself get involved in a relationship, particularly not with the aggressive therapist. Once the two start talking, it's funny how they pull themselves closer by pretending to push each other away. Their unlikely pairing goes from heat to companionship to frustrations to resolve. The most hilarious scene involves the dancer and his female best friend, when they play scientist with each other's "lab equipment". The most dramatic scene is when a somewhat-expected tragedy is turned into a powerful performance before an audience. This is a funny and easygoing movie about letting go of life's frustrations, then remembering to live.