Dallas Buyers Club

Based on a true story, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) leads a fast and rough life.  He’s an electrician working in dangerous areas, a swindling gambler at the local rodeo, drinks heavily, snorts coke and has plenty of loose women.  When we first meet him, there is no denying his physical condition is atrocious.  He is sickly skinny with sunken eyes and blacks out the moment he gets home to his trailer.  After an accident at work, he wakes up in a hospital to the news that he is HIV positive and only has thirty days to live.

At the time, 1985, HIV and AIDS were stigmatized as a homosexual disease, so the news is a lot for a rough neck cowboy to take in.  After some initial denial and tension with his homophobic friends, Ron takes action.  He does some research and tries to get AZT, but the drug is only in clinical trials.  His searching for it leads him to Mexico, where a doctor is doing his own research on AIDS.  After nursing Ron back to a more manageable health, the doctor gives Ron a mixture of drugs and vitamins to smuggle into the United States to sell to others who are HIV positive or fighting AIDS.  With the help of a transvestite he met at the hospital, Rayon (Jared Leto), Ron takes to the streets of Dallas trying to give the HIV and AIDS community a better chance at life.  But the FDA, muddled in red tape, money and pushes out useless drugs, tries to shut Ron down.

Alright, alright, alright, let’s talk about Mathew McConaughey.  Between Dallas Buyers Club and his unforgettable cameo on The Wolf of Wall Street, this seems to be his best year yet.  He seems to have finally broken out of the pretty-boy rom-com roles and into more serious acting.  Best of all, his characters lately always come across as a bad-ass, always in control even when things are not going his way.  And his physical transformation to portray Ron is astounding and no doubt took some real commitment.  I just hope it was safe, we want him around for a long time.

And then there’s Jared Leto. He portrays Rayon, a HIV positive transvestite with a heart of gold that Ron meets in the hospital.  Right away, we see that he is genuinely kind, even when Ron is clearly uncomfortable with a homosexual in makeup befriending him.  What makes this such a great role is Rayon’s problems with drug abuse and his uneasy relationship with his father.  The hype has been with Leto long before his nomination, I’m curious to see how the Academy will vote.

Dallas Buyers Club is nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, film editing, original screenplay.  McConaughey has earned nomination for lead actor and Leto for supporting actor, a first Oscar nomination for either of them.  The film is also nominated for makeup and hair styling, and between Leto’s makeup and whatever they did to McConaughey to make him look so sickly at times, I believe this film has secured the award.

Honestly, I feel a bit indifferent about this film as a whole.  I agree that this is a good movie, it is an important story that deserves to be told and the acting all around is great, but I just did not find myself connecting with it.  Maybe it was the way Ron seems kind of like a Texan Robin Hood, smuggling good drugs in and the FDA comes across like a money fueled Prince John scrambling to shut Ron down.  However, I would not discourage others from seeing it.

“What?  Hook me up to the morphine drip, let me fade on out?  Nah.  Sorry, lady, but I prefer to die with my boots on.”

The Hours

“A woman’s whole life in a single day. Just one day. And in that day her whole life. ”

The film opens with a reading of Virginia Woolf’s suicide note as she fills her pockets with stones and walks into a river to drown herself.  The tone is firmly set.

In The Hours, we see three different days for three women spread over sixty years.  There’s Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) in the middle of writing Mrs. Dolloway.  In 1951, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is a housewife on the verge of a complete breakdown.  And in 2001, Clarissa (Meryl Streep) is planning a party for her dear friend and writer, Richard (Ed Harris) who is dying from AIDS.  They’re connected by Virginia’s novel and the issue of suicide, in one way or another. 

I would like to to call this a “woman’s issues film”; the name sounds horrible, but this isn’t stupid or romantic like a chick-flick nor is it estrogen fueled sap like a Lifetime movie.  The problems these women face may look trivial at first, but the utter loneliness and despair within Laura or the need Clarissa has to take care of Richard, these problems can’t be solved with a shopping spree.  Some may be completely bored by this film, the talk is quiet, not a lot of action and there’s a need to read everyone’s faces and decipher the tone of their voice.  Others (myself included) will be enthralled, the characters are fascinating, full fleshed for all their good, bad and upsetting traits and their issues are genuine and personal.  They won’t cause the world to stop turning (and they know it), but in a moment everything can be turned upside down or lost.  That simple truth is what makes this pull on your heart and maybe even donate some tears.

Kidman’s performance as Virginia Woolf is amazing. This is Nicole like we’ve never seen her before: with frumpy hair, in an shapeless floral sack-dress.  I honestly had to double check the IMDB page to make sure it really was Kidman, that fake nose went a long way.  There’s more than the costume and makeup, but the way she can loose herself staring into space, the intrigued look as she studies a dead bird, it’s suddenly all Woolf and Kidman is nowhere in sight.  That’s what the Best Actress is all about.

This can be a very hard film to get through.  Despair and loneliness are not glossed over and suicide can be a tough subject to tackle.  It is worth the view, but don’t go it alone with a pint of ice cream, it isn’t that kind of girl movie.  You might be in real need of a hug.  At the heart of this film, a sad, sad truth is brought out I only wish were not true: “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It’s contrast.”