'Club' Med
/Dallas Buyer's Club
Directed by: Jean-Marc Valle
Written by: Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner
Ron Woodruff (Matthew McConaughey) is living his life the only way he knows how - work, drugs, booze, and sex. Not the most glamorous of lifestyles, but it works for him. However, these life choices have serious consequences, which Ron finds out when a hospital visit triggers a series of life changing events. Dallas Buyer’s Club tells, not only Woodruff’s story, but the story of those who were diagnosed with HIV in the late 80’s whom society knowingly shunned.
In 1986, the year Woodruff was diagnosed HIV positive, the disease was little understood. Those who had it couldn’t grasp it’s severity and those who didn’t couldn’t grasp it’s existence outside a very specific and ‘promiscuous’ community. It’s clear Ron contracted the disease through unprotected sex, though who knows from whom. After admitting himself to the hospital for other reasons, he is told by Dr. Saks and Dr. Sevard (Jennifer Garner and Dennis O'Hare respectively) that he is HIV positive and will only survive another month. The outrage this prompts from Woodruff starts one of the overarching conflicts of the film - who and who can’t (unscientifically speaking) contract the disease. Woodruff ignorantly refers to it as the ‘Homo disease’ and since he ‘ain’t no homo,’ there must be a gross mistake. He storms from the hospital room and continues with his toxic lifestyle. All the while, denying his positive status.
The 'homo disease' quickly catches up with Ron as he finds himself lying in a hospital bed, his arms poked with IV’s. Here he uncomfortably meets Rayon (Jared Leto), a pre-op transvestite. Both have HIV and both are asked to participate in a clinical study of a new HIV drug. This creates a unique bond between the two of them as the clinical trials begin to fail them. While the drug manufacturers are seeing (through some forced research) some successes, there isn’t overwhelming evidence that the drug works. In fact, both Woodruff and Rayon prove that it can be more harmful than helpful. An awkward alliance forms as Woodruff and Rayon start the Dallas Buyer’s Club - where, for a monthly fee, you can have access to all the HIV medication that is not approved by the FDA - and yield far better medical results. The club is a success and starts the other overarching theme of the film - who really controls the FDA?
The directing is focused, honest, and blunt. Director Jean-Marc Vallee allows his actors to breathe life into the script and is smart enough to keep out of the way. Both McConaughey and Leto perform brilliant and nuanced portrayals of Woodruff and Rayon. Their work is not showy and each embodies the inner turmoil of the characters without them becoming cliched victims of their own poor judgement. At face value, it’s easy to dismiss Woodruff and Rayon as just any other calamity of the AID’s epidemic. Individuals who were too wrapped up in their vices and didn’t have the good sense to 'get clean.' However, they are more than that. At first it’s so easy to write off Woodruff as another homophobe, too ignorant to see his own inevitable death. Yet McConaughey plays Ron as real, and the film naturally allows him to change and grow as a person.
The script covers a lot of ground and many years, which is perhaps it’s biggest flaw. When you have to cover so much territory, it’s easy to feel as if you’re watching a series of vignettes instead of one complete story line. Quite often, biopics feel the need to cover a characters life in it’s entirety instead of focusing on the one event that makes them who they are. A lot happens in Dallas Buyer’s Club and in the end, I feel this is what prevents the ultimate emotional impact the story was striving for. When the final scene ends and the credits role, there was a longing for something more. Whether it was more of a focus on Ron and Rayon’s relationship or the fight with the FDA, the film dove in too many directions for an ultimate connection. Or perhaps I’m still an outsider looking in.