Dallas Buyers Club

I can’t say Dallas Buyers Club is the best movie I’ve seen in a while. But it features two of the best performances this year. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are searing in the movie, undergoing a transformation profound both physically and emotionally.

The film is based on the true story of Ron Woodroof, played spectacularly by McConaughey, a party-hard, drug snorting, aggressively homophobic Texan whose life is upended when he is informed by doctors that he has the (in those days) dreaded AIDS and will die in 30 days. Physically turning into a wraith, Woodroof faces his sentence with a zealot’s will to live. He looks for medicines and treatments which will help him, finds out they are not FDA-approved, and then proceeds to smuggle these drugs in and flip off his doctors. He becomes an entrepreneur of sorts, setting up the Dallas Buyers Club, where other patients can buy membership in exchange for these life-saving, but illegal, drugs. His friends shun him, but he discovers new ones – most notable among them is Rayon, a wild, whimsical transvestite also being treated for AIDS, played by Jared Leto. Woodroof ends up living for another seven years, becoming a spokesperson for patients’ rights and taking on the medical establishment. 

While set in 1980s, the film is still relevant and potent in its messages about how the world views AIDS victims, and what kind of medical support is made available to them. Set in the Texan hinterland, one can only imagine the innuendo and stigma that everyone assigns to Woodroof. The raw emotion and power of McConaughey’s performance is phenomenal. Despite his scrawny physique, his eyes carry a fire that refuses to be extinguished. He scams, cons, cajoles and argues his way past the prejudice and red tape and overcomes his own hopelessness at what appeared initially to be a futile endeavor. He makes the FDA sit up and notice him, and does manage a small victory of sorts. This is the best acting we’ve ever seen from McConaughey, and an Oscar nod seems almost a foregone conclusion. 

The real surprise, though, comes in the form of Jared Leto, in his powerhouse turn as Rayon. His physical condition is just as brittle as McConaughey’s, but both of them manage to make their performances transcend the physical. Convincing as Leto is in his high-heels, skirts and blonde curls, the gliding stride and the delicate mannerisms, the proof of his performance is in the one scene in which he dresses as a man to meet his father. All along, Rayon is the one ray of sunshine in a bleak landscape where death is inevitable and hope is gone. In this scene, Leto delves into the unexpected depth of Rayon to come up with a heartbreaking portrayal of a damaged soul looking for acceptance and compassion. He makes Rayon so much more than a comic stereotype. It is an authentic, remarkably unguarded and heartfelt performance. If McConaughey as Woodroof is the mind and muscle (such as it is) of Dallas Buyers Club, Leto as Rayon is its heart and soul. 

In the end however, the two performances are what make the movie worthwhile. The message is a bit convoluted and the scope not quite explored to its maximum potential. A lot of the fallout of Woodroof’s battle is tacked on as an afterthought or thrown away in text updates before the end titles. And Jennifer Garner brings absolutely nothing to the table. Despite these shortcomings, the movie will be remembered for the two central performances, which may be career bests for both McConaughey and Leto.

My Rating: 4/5