Film Review: Dallas Buyers Club

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

One of the films taking the latest awards season by storm is based on the true story of Ron Woodruff who contracted HIV and subsequently fought illegally imported drugs not available on the market in the US from abroad. The screenplay was created by Craig Borten who interviewed Woodruff shortly before his death and did the rounds in the mid-90's with little success, at one point Dennis Hopper was slated to direct and Woody Harrelson in the title role but again it never came to fruition. Jared Leto admitted he was once sent a script but never actually read it before he became reinvolved with the project this time with Matthew McConaughey.

Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey)

Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) is an electrician and rodeo cowboy in 1985 Dallas, he contracts HIV and is given around 30 days to live. He struggles to come to terms with his condition as he's strongly homophobic and believes the disease only affects homosexual men. After investigating his illness he realises that the FDA in America is refusing to certify many drugs to help manage AIDS that are available in other countries so starts a business importing the drugs to sell to local sufferers with Rayon (Jared Leto).

The one man campaign against the system that he believes is killing him by denying him the drugs is bold, its not a true story of one man fighting for the silent AIDS sufferers as he sees it purely as a business venture. Ron isn't the sort of man to turn down the opportunity to make a quick few dollars. The relationship created between Rayon is sharply witty at times as they trade jokes and barbs in the early going. In a world of legal and ethical loopholes being exploited on both sides, Jennifer Garner plays the upstanding moral guardian of the story as Dr. Eve Saks. Her role was a bit muddled at times and was more of a character for Ron to play off with some clever lines than a fully fledged character whose developed at any length

Rayon (Jared Leto)

To be honest the dramatic weight loss is one of the less exciting aspects of the roles played by McConaughey and Leto as they both produce excellent performances, especially Leto whose nonchalance masks a brittle and damaged personality after years of  drugs and rejection from his family due to his lifestyle. One scene where Leto is topless though shows the incredible amount weight he must have lost for this role though. In terms of Oscar nominations I'm not convinced McConaughey is a definite winner, outside of the dramatic weight loss which is always a huge plus with Oscar voters, its an impressive but not necessarily leagues apart from his peers. But Jared Leto is possibly closer to being rewarded come March but its still early days in the race.

3/4 Bold but with a dry wit adds to strong acting performances