Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 American film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée with an original screenplay by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto. It was released in Madrid on 14 March, 2014. Begoña and I went to see the film last weekend.
The synopsis on the official website says: A son of Texas, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is an electrician and rodeo cowboy. In 1985, he is well into an unexamined existence with a devil-may-care lifestyle. Suddenly, Ron is blindsided by being diagnosed as HIV positive and given 30 days to live. Yet he will not, and does not, accept a death sentence. His crash course of research reveals a lack of approved treatments and medications in the US, so Ron crosses the border into Mexico. There, he learns about alternative treatments and begins smuggling them into the US, challenging the medical and scientific community including his concerned physician, Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner). An outsider to the gay community, Ron finds an unlikely ally in fellow AIDS patient Rayon (Jared Leto), a transsexual who shares Ron’s lust for life. Rayon also shares Ron’s entrepreneurial spirit: seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines and supplements, they establish a “buyers club,” where HIV positive people pay monthly dues for access to the newly acquired supplies. Deep in the heart of Texas, Ron’s pioneering underground collective beats loud and strong. With a growing community of friends and clients, Ron fights for dignity, education, and acceptance. In the years following his diagnosis, the embattled Lone Star loner lives life to the fullest like never before.
The story rests on two pillars. One is the evolution of an extremely homophobic man, Ron Woodroof, towards a greater understanding of people with different sexual preferences, after being infected with HIV virus. The other is his fight against the pharmaceutical and health system that does not offer a better alternative. And it counts with two superb interpretations, for this alone is justified go and see it. But it seems to me that neither the direction nor the way the story is told, bring out the best of this film.
See Dallas Buyers Club review at The Hollywood Reporter
A Crime is Afoot 