Alive and Kicking by Stephen Farber A Brit worth watching is the strapping redhead Jason Flemyng, who had roles in Rob Roy, Stealing Beauty and Hollow Reed. In Hollow Reed, Flemyng was chillingly persuasive as an abusive, homophobic brute, so his sterling work in Alive and Kicking in which he plays a gay dancer with AIDS demonstrates his versatility as well as his charisma. His Tonio is a cocky, maddeningly self-absorbed dancer consumed with a new ballet. He also plunges into a new romance with an AIDS therapist, but his narcissism keeps sabotaging the relationship. The film suggests that his selfishness has its value; it may be his single-minded devotion to his art that keeps him alive and gives him a sense of purpose. The movie sees him in the round, and Flemyng refuses to sentimentalize or caricature Tonio. It's too bad that audiences may feel they have already had their fill of AIDS movies, because this is by far the best. It also presents the most believable love story in the recent batch of gay movies. The film is gracefully directed by Nancy Meckler and brilliantly scripted by Martin Sherman, the author of Bent. Sherman writes laceratingly funny dialogue, and he's sketched all the members of the ballet company with revealing strokes. As Tonio's lover, Jack, the acclaimed stage actor Antony Sher also gives a fine performance. In charting the progress of their romance, the film makes us feel there are actually some positive side effects to the AIDS crisis because it brings together people who might never have connected before the epidemic. At another time the studly Tonio would never have given the overweight, balding Jack a second look, but in the age of AIDS, Tonio is tired of the hot young hunks at the disco, and he finds a rapport with the bitter but incisive Jack. Alive and Kicking electrifies because of the revelation of seeing newcomers like Flemyng and Sher ignite the screen. What did you think of this movie? Sound off in the Movie Forum.