"I swear it, Ray, God sure was dressin' the wrong doll
when he blessed you with a set of balls."
We have a winner. Several, hopefully. Packing the force of a
Mike Tyson right cross, this small 4 million dollar budgeted film is a force to
be reckoned with. 34 days of filming. 47 pounds shed. And just a shade over 20
years to rework a screen play that culminates in Matthew McConaughey's
epic role as the mercurial Ron Woodruff. I flat out loved this movie. The
rawness. The grit. The assertive truculent way that the story unfolds. And then
you have the acting. Holy tornado is there acting. After 5 minutes into Dallas
Buyer's Club you forget you are watching a movie. You become swept up with the
events onscreen and feel like you are parked outside a bay window with
binoculars watching this man's life. There is something beautifully haunting
about watching a train wreck and this movie is no different. McConaughey is
cadaverously brilliant in his portrayal of a man who, faced with the grim
atonement for the plethora of poor decisions he made in his life, fights with
every fiber of his being for the chance of redemption.
Ron Woodruff is a drifter. Foul mouthed, homophobic and derelict he works his way through life at a break neck pace. Working at a rodeo outside of Dallas, in Ron's world he has it all. A little cash in the pocket, a liter of Jack in his belly and a legion of drugs crawling through his veins. His world unravels when his mild headaches morph into episodes of seizure and unconsciousness. While at the hospital he learns that he has HIV and is given 30 days to live. This death sentence galvanizes Ron's life and ironically, finally gives him purpose. He travels across the border to Mexico and begins smuggling untested, but effective drugs back for redistribution amongst fellow HIV/AIDS patients. Throughout his mission of reeducating people of how best to treat their illness he meets Rayon. Played exquisitely by the musically inclined Jared Leto, the two find comfort in their efforts and incidentally form the most improbable of friendships.
Overall this film blew me away. After hearing about it for months, I was finally able to squeeze it in before the big awards show this coming weekend. With all the big budget movies it will be up against, I really hope that it gets the recognition that it deserves. While the Academy awards are not the end all for how successful a movie was, you just hope this movie gets what it deserves. The commitment of McConaughy to lose that amount of weight is astounding. He was on Actor's Studio discussing his role and how he stayed inside for 4 months to achieve supreme paleness and what his diet consisted of. Amazingly enough, he mentioned that despite all the muscle mass he lost, he felt extraordinarily acute and hyper observant to everything happening around him during filming. He felt like he became Woodruff and it definitely showed on camera. If you have time this week, find your way to the box office or check the In Theaters tab of your pay per view movie downloadables and watch this amazing movie. You will not be disappointed.
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