Tex-Mix

Rating: 7/10 (2 December 2013)

This film is mildly recommended.
In Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey's first appearance is downright shocking: a pale skeletal image of this actor's former robust muscular self. We're use to seeing this good old country boy cavorting, drinking, and leading the wild life from his other film roles. But here, we also see the ugly side of this screen persona: drug abuse and rough sex amid bitter vitriolic and bigoted remarks. The actor has taken on the serious role of AIDS patient Ron Woodroof, a real life character who fought a courageous battle more so against the bureaucratic FDA than the disease itself.
As portrayed in this film, Woodroof is an arrogant Texas womanizer, a mean homophobe, a narcissist, and a heroin addict. He is a man with no moral center, no sense of compassion. a man filled with swagger and ego. Suddenly told he has 30 days to live, Ron lashes out at anyone he can: doctors, friends, gays. No, Ron is not the least bit likable, nor caring. He takes matters into his own hands: refusing AZT treatments, taking on the medical and governmental establishments, going across the border to get illegal drugs to help his immune system, starting a prescription service for his contraband, becoming a richer man in the process.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, the film shows the prejudice against AIDS patients and clearly presents the anger. What it doesn't do is connect the political roadblocks and emotionally tie you to its main character and his plight. Woodroof's conversion from homophobe to crusader never seems real. It's as if some pieces are missing to this enigmatic character. Certainly, it's not the fault of McConaughey's gripping performance. The actor never plays it safe in his acting choices, even though the film plays it safe with its narrative structure and factual information. The screenplay by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack tends to overlook important details as its encompasses the years from Woodroof's initial doctor's visit to his extended and borrowed time as a political militant. Dallas Buyers Club just stays too clinical and remote in its storytelling of this 80's epidemic.
Woodroof's ultimate redemption seems to hinge upon his friendships with a kind doctor (a winning Jennifer Garner) and Rayon (Jared Leto), a transgender individual who also suffers from this fatal disease. Leto's acting as the self-destructive Rayon is astounding, even more effectively conveyed, although I am not diminishing Mr. McConaughey's triumphant portrayal with this statement. Mr. Leto successfully avoids the gay stereotype of the wise-cracking, sage effeminate and inhabits the role with a tenderness and vitality, and also has the necessary poignancy which he adds to the nuances of his character. The physical changes of the two actors, who lost nearly over 80 pounds between them, is startling and helps to give, pardon the pun, some heft to its conventional story.
Dallas Buyers Club is a worthwhile film to see. It boasts two of this year's finest performances and deals with a complex and important issue, even if the end result tends to simplify and gloss over its serious subject. GRADE: B-