Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Directed by Jean- Marc Vallèe

117 minutes

It was different seeing Matthew McConaughey 38 pounds lighter. Trading his usual muscle clad body for one that barely fits in his vintage tapered jeans. But lately he has diversified from his once pigeon holed Rom -Com roles, to be nominated for best actor in this year’s Academy Awards. The film that enables this is Dallas Buyers Club a biopic drama, which relies on McConaughey embodying Ron Woodroof, a loud mouthed homophobe who tests positive to HIV.  

Dallas Buyers Club is set in the 1980s, an era when people like Woodroof believed the virus is a “faggot” disease.  Although it is speculated that the real Woodroof may have been bisexual and not a homophobe, Jean –Marc Vallèe presents a controversial figure in its normative heterosexual frame-work. Similarly Vallèe inserts a problematic view of the hospital system controlled by the villainous Dr. Sevard (Denis O ‘Hare), who looks a lot like Tony Abbot. Sevard diagnoses Woodroof with Aids and 30 days to live and endorses the drug AZT, which once illegally obtained, makes Woodroof progressively worse. Woodroof finds out that there are alternative drugs and vitamins available globally which had been proven to ease the pain and assist life but remain illegal in the USA. Obtaining the drugs he sells them to other HIV patients through his scheme called the Dallas Buyers Club, costing $400 per membership. Throughout this operation it is challenged by the FDA.

The transgression of Woodroof’s intentions of making a profit collapses as he becomes compassionate and his cause is moralistic. This is complimented with the believable Rayon portrayed by Jared Leto, a likeable and stereotypically clothed transvestite. Rayon is Woodroof’s business partner and helps him adapt to his new queer surroundings. Interestingly Leto’s character was added to the film’s adaptation of Woodroof’s story; it seems another avenue to make Woodroof and his transformation redeemable.

Dallas Buyers Club concentrates on using McConaughey as the main focus of the narrative, leveraging his underdog status. To a degree his costuming and weight-loss seemed to hide the potential for performance, or as much, where the film was willing to go. Whenever Woodroof breaks down, we are shown only a glimpse of a drawn out cry before the scene cuts. It was baffling to see these moments waisted. Dallas Buyers Club is certainly enjoyable and well acted. However it is more concerned with showing us a flawed system than progressing Woodroof’s true emotions or challenging the rigid stereotypes it presents.