Great movie

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2014)

This movie has got a lot going for it. In Ron Woodroof we have the classic anti-hero -- an arrogant, hard-drinking, womanising electrician who has his entire world overturned when he is diagnosed with HIV. Instead of lying down and dying, he resolves to try to live as long as he can by finding the latest experimental drugs, forms a club to distribute them to others and becomes an unlikely activist against big pharma and the government. Matthew McConaughey is great as Ron -- he has just the right degree of swagger and determination. He doesn't go over the top. Ron never comes across as a saint -- he's got many faults and he constantly makes mistakes but somewhere in there is a good heart. Jared Leto, however trumps him in the role of the transsexual Rayon. Wily, steely yet at times vulnerable, Rayon is a great partner in crime and there are some great scenes, such as when Rayon is touched that Ron sticks up for her in the supermarket when they comes across a bigoted friend from Ron's pre-AIDS days. I love how the period detail such as music, hair and clothes aren't over-done. I love how the movie doesn't go too much for the schmaltzy, meaning of life scenes. To me it's about a quiet but awesome kind of heroism. Ron is someone who wakes up one day and is told he has 30 days to live. He has no one to support him and a very bleak future but he picks himself up and does something about it. I felt the movie was let down a little by a weakly written doctor character played by Jennifer Garner, who has little to do except frown and look worried.