AIDS will end Ron Woodroof's life, but it just might save his soul.

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2014)

1985, Dallas: Electrician and occasional rodeo bull rider Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is a stereotypical redneck who drinks, smokes, snorts and screws his way through life. He is forthright, judgmental, homophobic and upon reading of Rock Hudson's AIDS related death, regards it as just reward for being a "faggot". AIDS is, after all, the 'gay plague'.
When Woodroof lands in hospital after an industrial accident and blood results show that he is HIV positive with just 29 days to live, his immediate reaction is rage and denial. He discovers a clinical trial for a new drug, AZT, but his attempts to buy himself onto the trial are thwarted and he is introduced to Dr. Vass (Griffin Dunne), who offers a different treatment. Woodroof might be ignorant but he is wily, far from stupid and sees a business opportunity. But nothing is straightforward and the disease that will end his life just might save his soul.
Based on the true story of Ron Woodroof, Dallas Buyers Club is an insightful reflection of the good that came out of something and someone rotten. Whereas 1993's Philadelphia took on the role of education and breaking down the barriers of homophobia, Jean-Marc Valée's film assumes that we already know what is good and just, and those who still share Woodroof's twisted views won't come within a mile of Dallas Buyers Club.
There is nothing schmaltzy about Dallas Buyers Club. This is not a self-conscious weepy designed to yank on your heartstrings. Yes, it is terribly sad and frequently stirring but it is also funny for the audacity of Woodroof's plans and his doomed flirtations towards his doctor, Eve (Jennifer Garner). More than that, it is sweet and tender with the evolution of Woodroof's relationship with transgender AIDS patient, Rayon (Jared Leto). And in the midst of the quarrels, sickness and political shenanigans, Dallas Buyers Club has time to be silently beautiful, particularly when Woodroof finds himself covered in butterflies. It is a magical moment of calm both for him and for us.
McConaughey is on a fantastic roll of fine performances in a succession of wonderful films (Mud, Killer Joe, The Paperboy). As I have written before, he is in serious danger of becoming a heavyweight amongst Hollywood's royalty if he continues in this vein. Much has been written about his dramatic weight loss for the role and though it is startling, it is not the achievement here that we should celebrate. It is his performance alone that should warrant our attention and admiration.
When you get down to it, Woodroof isn't a terribly nice man; he is the trailer trash brother of Jordan Belfort, but he is real. His prejudices stink and he's never going to be in the running for pope. McConaughey doesn't play him as a beautifully scripted flawed character but as a real man with a body-rotting death sentence who is subjected to the prejudice and hatred he once dished out. With the loss of job and friends and a burgeoning loathing of authority and injustice, Woodroof finds both his cause and his allies in the gay community. McConaughey maintains the abrasiveness and judgment of his character though the direction of it subtly alters. It is a performance that grips the viewer and may well become one that (re)defines McConaughey.
With his sensitive, engaging performance as Rayon, Jared Leto has leapt to the forefront of the cinema-goers' consciousness after a career hitherto as a solid peripheral actor. There is nothing gauche or gaudy about his Rayon and again this is a multifaceted character that is sensual, sassy and terribly damaged by a father's judgment. Leto brings much of the light relief to Dallas Buyers Club though Rayon's story is perhaps more traumatic and affecting than Woodroof's.
Adorned with awards already, when Sunday's BAFTAs arrive and the Oscars shortly after, Dallas Buyers Club may not triumph with the top gong, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see both McConaughey and Leto walk away with gold. And, no discredit to their fellow nominees, but both will thoroughly deserve it.
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