Matthew has AIDS

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2013)

Dallas Buyers Club is the type of film that seems to only receive the green light if a brave enough, or obtuse enough, high-profile actor attaches himself to the project, usually as both starring lead and producer. Matthew McConaughey joins the list, following in the footsteps of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and others. However, none of them changed their physical appearance to quite the dramatic level McConaughey has. Losing nearly forty pounds for the role of Ron Woodruff, a Texas man diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, the pasty, sallow skin stretched over a diminished skeletal structure certainly is a shock to most audiences, especially considering McConaughey is best known as a genial, strikingly attractive lead in various romantic comedies.
Moving away from that genre since 2009, McConaughey seems to have gotten tired of being boxed in as an actor and has put together a most impressive resume capable of showing his true potential as an actor. This is his most "method" performance, comparable to the likes of DeNiro in Raging Bull, although to the opposite extreme. Yet, beyond simply losing weight and gaining a mustache, McConaughey really digs deep into this character, willing to go to any length to show his drug abuse, unsafe sexual behavior and overall self-destructive tendencies as being rooted not just in Woodruff's life but in his community as well. Many of the early scenes in the film depict him at his favorite hangouts: the rodeo, where he seems to constantly hustle others, the bar where he downs shots and cigarettes like candy, and work where he shoots the breeze and more cigarettes. The main problem with the film is that just about covers its character study of Ron Woodruff.
As the film progresses, one gets rather frustrated at the seemingly inept structure and logic behind this story. For example, after being told that he has AIDS, Woodruff refuses to believe it, which follows what has already been shown. However, after some confusing visual tactics and a couple blank stares into the camera, he moves voraciously over books and articles, finding out enough information to be able to search out a certain drug he has read will slow down the HIV virus. Obvious to anyone who has seen this sort of rebel with a cause story before, the hospital and FDA refuse to give him anything more than a place in a study they are performing attempting to find out the effects of this drug. Rather than die by chance, he travels to Mexico, gets in contact with a formerly licensed doctor and discovers, or at least believes without much conviction, that there are alternate treatments which are not available in the U.S. due to said FDA. The battle lines have been drawn.
What follows lacks the energy and conviction one would hope for in a film of this type. McConaughey is game for this role, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. The problem is that the director, Jean-Marc Vallée, refuses to let him loose. Countless scenes seem so restrained and controlled that we get little sense of a man on the verge of dying from an incurable illness, which I can only imagine must be one the most terrifying and harrowing feelings possible in life. However, the film does not seem interested in such feelings, only in pushing the narrative forward but even that is disjointed at times. Jennifer Garner's frumpy doctor, with no life outside of work other than sitting at home and drinking wine, lacks any real interest or importance at all. So when she confronts Ron about a very serious development in the story, her lines come across as static and silly. How could she feel the way she claims to if we have seen little of this behavior?
The other noteworthy performance beside McConaughey is Jared Leto, an actor who seems to wait out for these kind of roles. Playing a transvestite and looking like the lovechild of Sigourney Weaver and David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth, he too is game for going all in and leaving nothing to the imagination in this portrayal of two men on the brink of death and willing to go all in. Yet, the film maintains its breadth-over-depth stance. By the end, all we are left with are more questions about who exactly this Ron Woodruff was. Scenes involving his starting up the buyers club have the only true excitement and movement in the film. He travels the world looking for exotic and unavailable drugs and doctors who will write prescriptions for him. It's a sad fact when these are the most interesting sequences in a film revolving around people dying of the most devastating disease discovered in the last century. Perhaps Hollywood isn't ready to tell this type of story yet. Philadelphia was close but got bogged down in cliché courtroom sequences. This film bogs itself down by relying on obligatorily timed moments that leave nothing to chance. This may make for a safe story, but it cannot fit the true happenings of a person battling AIDS.