"Dallas Buyers Club" features award-winning acting, but has little more going for it.

Rating: 5/10 (23 December 2015)

A straight man (a homophobic straight man, nonetheless) with HIV when AIDS was thought of as a "gay man's disease". A person with HIV in the 1980s, when there were virtually no effective treatments available in the United States. That's the nearly impossible position in which Ron Woodroof found himself, and it's his real-life story that's told in "Dallas Buyers Club" (R, 1:57).
Woodroof (a gaunt Matthew McConaughey) is a Dallas electrician by day, cowboy when the rodeo is in town and a partier – whenever. His high-risk behaviors land him in the hospital where he is told he has HIV, and 30 days to live. Woodroof does his homework, but is unsuccessful at securing a steady supply of helpful medicines, until he travels to Mexico and brings back enough for him and a few dozen of his closest friends, provided those friends can pay. Woodroof becomes unlikely partners with Rayon (Jared Leto), a cross-dressing gay man, who helps bring him customers and the Dallas Buyers Club is born.
Woodruff copies a business model, of sorts, that he learns is being used in other cities, and begins selling "memberships". Members are entitled to a variety of drugs and medicines (some natural and some experimental) that are not available in the U.S., but procured from a growing list of locations all around the world. Woodruff gets help from a local doctor (Jennifer Garner) who gradually comes to understand that he really is helping people. Woodroof, however, is battling the local authorities, the medical establishment, the drug companies, and even his former friends, all of which perceive him as a threat, for various reasons. Meanwhile, he develops full-blown AIDS. Although he lives much longer than originally projected, he knows his days are numbered and he wants his life to mean something.
The strength of "Dallas Buyers Club" is its acting – mostly that from the two main characters. McConaughey and Leto both give earnest and heart-breaking, but somehow uplifting and definitely award-worthy performances. (Editor's note: Both men eventually received Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Oscars for their work in this film.) Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for this film begins and ends with the acting. The story is interesting enough (not to mention important, yet little-known), but the movie drags, and it feels much longer than its 117 minutes. Its entertainment value, although bolstered by its talented leads, is still relatively low. "B-".