I was drawn to this film for two reasons, it had a really high rating on rotten tomatoes and because it starred Matthew McConaughey. I would say this is probably his finest acting performance, career-defining. He played the part of an HIV positive man and was set in 1985. He was an extremely homophobic sort of cowboy. When he got the diagnosis they only gave him 30 days to live.
Determined to prove his doctors wrong, he sets out to learn about treatments and get his hands on the drugs that could lengthen his life as well as others. Along the way he meets Jared Leto’s character who plays a transgender female. I liked watching the evolution of their “relationship”. At first, Matthew was completely repulsed by her but was able to warm up a bit starting when she massaged a cramp out of his leg in the hospital. Eventually, even though she was not straight he began to find value in her and began a business that would eventually become the title of the film, the “Dallas Buyers Club”. At first, it was not a club at all. Really it was just a couple of people peddling HIV drugs on the streets that were not FDA approved. At the time, obtaining the drugs was fairly simple, it was just a matter of finding the customers. However, it was still illegal. He then starts the club. For $400 per month, he will provide the much-needed drugs all anyone needed to do was pay the membership fee. This made it a legal business since he was no longer technically a drug dealer anymore. It’s kind of sad when you think about it, that he had to do this in order to extend his own life. You see, as the film explains, the only FDA approved drug, at the time was AZT, which was a highly toxic drug capable of killing the HIV virus as well as the healthy cells along with it. What he discovered was, there were fewer toxic solutions being used in other countries with success. This was where he made his entrance. He would have to fight several legal battles and lose them, but at least he was trying to make a difference in the HIV community. Along the way, he became much less homophobic, although not all the way. I found him to be quite entertaining at times, as did some of the theater patrons. In the entire film, Matthew is struggling with his health, but you just know, with full blown aids, he would not be living a long life.
Jared Leto also gave a solid performance as the transgender. Jennifer Garner was just okay. The movie hit me emotionally toward the end when Matthew gave Jared a nice long hug, something he would have never done prior to finding out he was sick. Highly recommended.
*****
