AIDS docu-melodrama

Rating: 6/10 (21 February 2014)

'Inspired from a real story' can provide the premises of good movies and bad movies, or I should put it in different words - movies I like and movies I do not like. They are usually good when they aim higher than replaying on screen the facts but also succeed in extracting the human truth behind the journalistic truth. It's not only an issue of credibility, as reality surpasses fiction in many cases in creating incredible situations, and real life characters can be extreme to the unbelievable in good and evil. It's an issue of adding that minimal dose of emotion that justifies the decision of viewers who chose the movie channel rather than Discovery. It's just that it must be real human emotion.
Combining docudrama and melodrama Dallas Buyers Club describes that moment at the beginning of the spreading of AIDS when no cure or even treatment to decrease suffering was available and the lack of information about the disease, its origins, ways of propagation was leaving space to prejudice. We still encounter this in some remote countries, but than, 30 years ago this was the situation in the developed world including main stream USA. Ron Woodroof lives the transformation between being the ultimate macho stereotype man, homophobic and ignorant to the stunned victim of the disease who decides to fight for the right to live his own way - which is also the way of the rebels in the American system in periods of pioneering. Actually America was pioneering new territory at that point in time with the initial initiative fighting not only the external threat but also the internal sclerosis of the medical and legal system.
Yes, the acting of Matthew McConaughey is brilliant and he deserves the Academy Award that he may get for this role. Unfortunately this is the only artistic statement of quality in this film. The rest is enveloped in a package of melodrama, with a script that does not offer any interesting or surprising development, and director Jean-Marc Vallee and supporting actors Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto not succeeding to overcome the stereotypes and the melodrama. I was quite hesitant to go and watch this film which is out of my preferred genres and zone of comfort or entertainment, unfortunately the reasons to hesitate were justified.