Dallas Buyers Club

Released: 2014
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto

Brilliant acting saves this biopic from being average

I’m just about old enough to remember the emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s. Here in Britain it was accompanied by doom-laden adverts showing exploding mountains and granite gravestones with the tagline “Don’t Die of Ignorance”. It probably saved lives by terrifying people and stopping them having sex for years. These days though (in the West at least) HIV and AIDS are conditions that people live with rather than die from. It wasn’t always this way, particularly in those first, horrific days when a diagnosis of AIDS was a promise of a quick, painful death.

So it seemed to be the case for hard-living Texan electrician Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) who is, out of the blue, given 30 days to live. His immediate reaction is to scream, shout, threaten, take drugs, drink like a fish and prove his heterosexuality with some classless trailer-park sex. As his limited days go on, however, he desperately searches for a way to learn more about his illness and extend his life expectancy. Deciding that “wonder drug” AZT is more damaging than helpful Ron smuggles more appropriate treatments into the US from Mexico. He realises quickly that he can make a profit and establishes the Dallas Buyers Club for fellow sufferers – bringing in supplies from Mexico, Israel, Japan and Amsterdam. He is aided by Rayon, a pre-op transgender AIDS patient that he meets by chance in hospital and who is a gateway to the gay community. The film charts Ron’s battles with the Food and Drug Administration, who are desperate to close down the various “virus clubs” which have sprung up across the country and to ensure that only approved drugs are available.

It took me about 20 minutes or so to settle into the film, the opening act is very uncomfortable to watch. Full of sex, drugs and homophobia it was clearly important that Ron’s heterosexuality and redneck credentials be established. We got that though in the first five minutes, we didn’t need another fifteen minutes to hammer the message home. Once Ron and Rayon meet and the club begins to form the film settles down, thanks to the performances of McConaughey and Jared Leto. Leto’s performance as Rayon is wonderful – tender, funny and heart-breaking all rolled into one and he and McConaughey have a lovely chemistry. Both have been nominated for Oscars and it’s easy to see why – I’m not sure I’ve seen a better performance from McConaughey. Jennifer Garner plays the sympathetic doctor, Eve Saks, a role which is the least showy in the film but she carries it off nicely.

The major problem with Dallas Buyers Club is that I’m not sure what the central point was – obviously it is a biopic of Ron Woodroof and how he turned his 30-day death sentence around but it loses focus when it tries to make heavy-handed attacks on the FDA and the drugs companies, and become a mini courtroom drama. There are moments of comedy and it’s undoubtedly a film more about living than dying, but what should have been a key emotional moment felt strangely cold.

I enjoyed Dallas Buyers Club and McConaughey and Leto thoroughly deserve their awards season successes but without their wonderful performances this would have been a thoroughly average film.