As undisciplined and sloppy as it is funny, "Jeffrey" may not win any awards as a well-made movie. But as an entertainment geared largely to gay filmgoers, it has few equals. While "To Wong Foo . . ." consciously woos a mass audience, "Jeffrey" wears its homosexual sensibilities like a badge of honor.

Adapted by Paul Rudnick from his acclaimed stage hit, it offers comedic treatment of a very serious subject, never mincing words and always letting us know where it's coming from. An example: When our sex-shy hero, Jeffrey (Steven Weber), finally kisses the handsome fellow he has worshiped from afar (Michael T. Weiss), Rudnick and director Christopher Ashley cut to a shot of two teen-age couples sitting in a movie theater, apparently watching the scene. The two boys make outraged, strangling noises and throw popcorn at the screen; their dates, though, sigh with satisfaction. That sort of gonzo, anything-goes attack is characteristic of "Jeffrey." One fantasy segment is devoted to a parody of TV quiz shows in which gay contestants are judged not on the correctness of their answers but on the stylishness. There's a long scene in which Jeffrey attends a self-help seminar presided over by a slick, thoroughly self-centered infomercial queen (Sigourney Weaver).

Here's the problem: Jeffrey has given up sex. It's not just fear of contracting AIDS; what's even worse is falling in love and then losing that person to the disease. Jeffrey is attracted to Steve (Weiss), who admits early in their dance of courtship that he's HIV-positive. Jeffrey can't deal with it. "Sex was never meant to be safe or negotiated or fatal," Jeffrey says in a speech directly to the camera. But his attraction to Steve won't go away. And therein lies his dilemma.

The direction by first-timer Ashley is often meandering and imprecise, with scenes wearing out their welcome long before he tires of them. The photography is dull. And for all of the explosive humor he packs, Rudnick has only a tentative grasp of character.

Happily, the players compensate. Weber, best known for TV's "Wings," is an affecting, attractive hero; Weiss oozes well-adjusted studliness. Nathan Lane makes a funny appearance as a gay priest, and such noteworthies as Robert Klein, Olympia Dukakis and Kathy Najimi appear. Stealing the film, though, is Patrick Stewart, late of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," who trades in his tight red uniform for the flowing shirts of an interior decorator who has a Wildean witticism for every situation. "I want an open coffin," he says. "They can say it to my face." Asked to name his dream date he answers, "Yoko Ono . . . to see the apartment."

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