Matthew McConaughey leaves all his past romantic comedy sins in the past with a brave, outrageous performance as the creator of the DALLAS BUYERS CLUB.
As electrician, hustler, sex addict Ron Woodruff, McConaughey is 50 pounds lighter, deathly thin and almost unrecognizable. Woodruff starts the film as a racist, homophobic low life filling his empty life with trashy women, cocaine and one scheme after another.
After contracting HIV from a drug-using, nearly anonymous woman in a one night stand, Woodruff is startled by the fact that he has the disease and cannot get the AZT needed to prevent HIV from becoming full blown AIDS.
Given 30 days to live, he starts a quest to not only get the drugs he needs from Mexico, but to start a pipeline of those drugs for other people like him.
What starts as another money making scheme transforms Ron as a person.
The film surrounds McConaughey with a great cast. Jared Leto deserves a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Rayon, a surprisingly beautiful transgender woman and a VERY unlikely friend for Woodruff. The arc of their friendship from the first time they meet to the film's conclusion is powerful. Jennifer Garner is very good as a local doctor who is mistrusting of the FDA, big pharma and her bosses as she watches AIDS patients dying without help and Ron truly trying to make a difference.
The film has plenty of surprises, but probably none bigger than McConaughey's performance. It's the best acting of his career and takes him from character/action actor to the top ranks of American actors. Between this and "Killer Joe", he is on a career bending path.
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB is frank, adult, sexual and not for the intolerant. It's also moving and should inspire a lot of questions about big pharma's influence on drugs in the USA.
Here's hoping McConaughey and Leto both win acting awards on Sunday night, they are deserved. Dallas Buyers Club gets a powerful A.
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