One of the more positive outcomes of 2013 is the renaissance of Matthew McConaughey, or, dare I say it, the McConnaissance (whoever came up with that awful term needs a slap on the wrists). Emerging from the nasty deeps of Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson romcoms, McConaughey is back on top as the man of the hour, nabbing a Best Actor nomination for Dallas Buyers Club in the process. But what is it with this movie?
I didn't like it very much. There's no tiptoeing around it, Dallas Buyers Club was quite a letdown given all the supposed acclaim. It didn't just win two Golden Globes for stars McConaughey and Jared Leto, it's also managed to grab a whopping 6 Academy Award nominations proving once and for all that awards are not necessarily an indicator for quality movies. Let's go into detail as to why this film is as unsatisfactory as an orgy for an eunuch.
At the beginning we are introduced to Ron Woodroof, played by Matthew McConaughey. He's a racist, homophobic, white-trash asshole without any redeeming qualities. Then Ron finds out that he is HIV positive but since it is the 1980s there is no medication available to him, the doctors give him 30 days to live. Ron beats the odds by smuggling non-FDA-approved medicine from Mexico into the US. With the help of transvestite Rayon, played by Jared Leto, he soon supplies the entire region of Dallas with the drugs, something that gets him the attention of the FDA who start their own crusade to bring Ron and his buyers club down.
First the positives. Yes, the acting by McConaughey and Leto is really, really good. But what's a decent performance if it is wasted in a film with a script as weak and faulty as this? The storytelling is jumpy to say the least. We never get a sense of Ron's development from sinner to saint, his motives never seem to be of any other nature than selfishness and greed. He gets the drugs to help himself and he uses the buyers club simply as a moneymaking scheme, not out of a feeling of social responsibility. His relationship with Rayon is also portrayed in a sketchy fashion. There are some scenes that work, such as when Ron defends Rayon in the supermarket or when Ron tries to sell the drugs to Rayon on the street but those moments remain few and far between. The characters shine in these scenes but are lost in the larger scope of the story. And this brings me to the main failure of Dallas Buyers Club.
Instead of simply focusing on the characters involved, the film also tries to tell the David and Goliath of Ron against the mighty FDA, a task that is a couple numbers too big for the movie. Just like the characters always seem to be removed from the audience's full grasp, there is no sense of depth or urgency to Ron's political struggle, things seem to happen without enough context, appearing without much rhyme or reason. Again, some single moments work fine on their own but are followed up by title cards reading "2 months later" or "6 months later" which are just the movie maker's lazy way of giving us the false idea that some development has happened while we as the audience are left out of it.
Dallas Buyers Club is made with the best of intentions and its source material deserves exposure as it clearly marks an important issue. But since it awkwardly sits between chairs as it tries to be both a character piece as well as a political underdog story, it fails to deliver on either side. This is a shame as the performances are admittedly outstanding. But who cares about acting if the script doesn't keep us engaged in watching?
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