Tonio (Jason Flemyng) is an arrogant narcissistic dancer with an artistic temperament who has lost his mentor, best friend, and lover to AIDS. He is a shameless flirt who stalks about like the young Rudolf Nureyev. Tonio has AIDS, but refuses to take drugs to fight the disease lest they interfere with his dancing. The story is set in 1995 London, so makes no mention of the new protease inhibitors that have rendered thousands of AIDS patients asymptomatic. A fatalist, Tonio has decided to keep on dancing for as long as he can, too proud to let his HIV-positive status interfere with either his career or his love life. Tonio is an obnoxious queen at times. But most of the time he is a man who lives by dancing. Although he denies it, he escapes through dance.
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 HIV-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 nasty drunken tantrums, angry over the deaths of so many of his patients. The heart of the movie is an exploration of the relationship between these two volatile, complicated, self-absorbed individuals. Their love story is set against the identity crisis of Tonio's mostly gay dance company, whose cranky founder, Luna (Dorothy Tutin), seems to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. A running subplot that follows Tonio's friendship with a lesbian dancer named Millie (Diane Parish) feels tacked on, and a scene where they try sex is quite silly. You don't believe for a second that people as aware as these two would fool themselves into attempting such a childish experiment.
"Alive & Kicking" is the first screenplay by noted playwright Martin Sherman ("Bent") and the second feature to be directed by Nancy Meckler, whose debut film "Sister My Sister" won critical acclaim around the world. It has its weak and even embarrassing moments, but the performances of Jason Flemyng and Anthony Sher are excellent, and the entire cast is great. Peter Salem composed the original music.
