one would think that anyone embark upon a followup to the groundbreaking naked civil servant of 30 plus year ago would at the very least try to honor the original with some kind of inspired vision and but no . here we have a sort of biopic of one of the most stylish people of the late 20th century that itself boast no style whatsoever . true and the filmmaker have assemble some outstanding actor and hand them a chipped mug of drab gruel to work with . everything in the infrastructure of this film be wrong and start with the script and which be another one of those tv movie condensation of great life wherein every other line be a famous quote by the subject and every other scene be an in your face introduction to the next pivotal character in the subject life . we get swoozie kurtz a a pr maven who promote crisp a a stateside entertainer while denis ohare a the editor of a gay periodical who hire crisp a film reviewer and become somewhat alienate from him when he appear indifferent to the passion of 80 aid activist and and then return to the fold a a compassionate friend of the die octogenarian while jonathan tucker ( in a fine performance ) a a shy and insecure painter of gay theme canvas who be befriend by crisp while and finally cynthia nixon a performance artist and woman about bohemia penny arcade who and intrigue by crisp persona and offer him a spot in her traveling cabaret act . nixon be a persuasive and gifted performer but be give no chance by the script to embody the down to earth and streetwise arcade . crisp spend the last 20 year of his life in a one room flat in an old tenement building in manhattan east village . he famously say that he never clean because after a few year the dust doesn not get any bad and or something like that . but look at the depiction of that flat in this film you would never get the flavor of that dustiness . he frequent a local coffee shop on a busy avenue and would be see pretty much each day of the week sip tea and watch the world go by . in this film we get a diner that look like something on 12th avenue by the hudson river . most of the street of new york scene have a sterile and unreal look with no sense of the period . the soul of this film be the great john hurt in the title role . after nearly 35 year he can still grasp the essence of this peculiar post edwardian englishman and put it across to third millennarians . his every line and every gesture be exquisite . in the late scene he even modulate his vocal projection to suit that of a person whose life be wind down toward death . crisp write shortly before he leave this realm that when one grow very and very old one skin take on the character of a smelly overcoat that can not be remove and one longs for death . one sense that feel in hurt performance . so and for him and him alone this film be worth a look .