DALLAS BUYERS CLUB - 18th February 2014

I ventured down to my favourite movie theatre, the Cremorne Orpheum, last night to see the much talked about, hyped up, eagerly awaited 'DALLAS BUYERS CLUB' and it's much slimmed down lead star Matthew McConaughey. I was keen to see this, but must say that in the final analysis when the credits rolled was I left feeling a little short changed . . . but, only just a little!

Our story kicks off in 1985 with the news headlines off the day that Rock Hudson has died, and that he was homosexual! This sets the tone as the main characters all deride how this former Hollywood Hunk Megastar could in fact be a "faggot"! Needless to say this too is the era when HIV and AIDS captured the news headlines almost everyday and this was an epidemic of global proportions (but only if you were a "faggot"!). And so the scene is set for Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) to emerge as the Rodeo hand and occasional rider, and oil field electrician to introduce us to his drug snorting, sexed up, alcohol fuelled, trailer park living existence. In many respects this guy is low-life trash, and after a minor electrical accident at work he awakens in the hospital being treated by the good Doctor played by Jennifer Garner whose hospital is just starting to administer new wonder drug AZT to HIV & AIDS sufferers.

Woodroof is told he has just 30 days to live, and so plunging into denial he spends the next 30 days inside a whisky bottle, snorting coke and hiring prostitutes before an awakening that sends him to Mexico, where he can get treatment and drugs not legal or approved in the USA for the treatment of his deteriorating condition. This sets in a train a plan to bring these "drugs" (which in reality are various concoctions of vitamins, proteins and natural remedies that help restore and boost the immune system) into the USA with the Federal Drug Agency and in turn the IRS breathing down his neck relentlessly. Because he cannot sell his products he set up the 'Dallas Buyers Club' and sells memberships for $400 a month for which you get all the drugs and remedies you need - and needless to say he becomes very successful.

Along the way Woodroof teams up with Rayon as the similarly infected transsexual, played brilliantly by Jared Leto, who then form an unlikely partnership with both refusing to accept their fate and make the very most of what they have left of their lives. On this note, we learn in the closing credits that Woodroof lived for 2,557 days after his diagnosis that day in hospital and beat what the Doctor had to say about his short term future by 2,527 days . . . not bad I guess, under the circumstances!

At times this film is moving, it is sad, funny, harrowing and eye opening. It is worth seeing for McConaughey and Leto's performances which are flawless, real and believable, and like those actors before them - Tom Hanks in 'PHILADELPHIA' and Christian Bale in 'RESCUE DAWN', it seems that McConaughey is prepared to go to any length to inhabit his character, and in doing so is riding high on the crest of his second Hollywood wave.



-Steve, at Odeon Online-