Ron in Real Life | Dallas Buyers' Club Review

I had a really hard time evaluating this film. The first time I watched it in the cinema, I came out completely awestruck. The second time, I was impressed. The third, and it all began to fade. Dallas Buyers' Club has been heralded by the Academy, praised by film lovers and has grossed $33.2 million. Why, then, were the critics not so loving?

Well, the Academy and the film-goers have sunk their teeth into exactly what they saw; the filming and the acting. In his review, Mark Kermode talks about the realism of the filming. He's not wrong, you know. The still camera is avoided like the plague in favour of what Kermode calls “loose-limbed” camerawork. As I've said before, I'm a fan of realist cinema, so this kind of filming really hits the spot for me. A camera which moves like a person draws a viewer in [and that's the point of a film as far as I'm concerned]. The film's cinematography is quite something, too. Yves Bélanger at the top of his game.

As for the acting, the Academy Awards said it all really, didn't they? Kermode makes quite a claim in saying that McConaughey's performance “elevate[s] this drama out of the realms of the ordinary into something quietly remarkable.” I'm not going to argue with him, he's right. In what the mob have been calling the “McConaissance”, Matthew has leapt out of the realm of the rom-com with all of his might and landed comfortably in a weightier genre. I don't usually find it easy to choose a favourite scene in a film, but there is one insanely raw shot in which McConaughey gives us the most fearful acting I've ever seen from him. If you've seen the film, you'll probably understand that I'm talking about the scene in the car on [what he believes to be] his last living day.

On the other hand, Telegraph's Tim Robey said in his review that Dallas Buyers' Club has performed a “resuscitating miracle” on the career of Jared Leto, that it's the work of his life. I wouldn't dispute for a second that it's the work of his life – after all, Fight Club didn't hand him an Oscar, did it? But the first comment makes my blood boil. Perhaps you could say that the film has resuscitated his acting career, but his career as a whole is going pretty well, I'd say. Are we ignoring his hugely successful band 30 Seconds to Mars, Robey? I think so. Apart from making a rather pretty girl, Leto rocked this role like the proverbial boat. He took a fantastic opportunity and pumped emotion into the character like Rayon pumps drugs into her arms [and legs... and feet and any other limb she can find a vein in].

The problem, then, that the critics had is probably in what the film doesn't show you. The Guardian published what is basically a revealing master post of everything that the film changed, covered over or added in, and the list isn't a short one. But it's just a film! I hear you say. True, but this is advertised as the true story of Ron Woodruff, AIDS victim and creator of the Dallas Buyers' Club. Instead, what we get is what we saw with Rush an expressionist painting of him by the ever-famous artist; Hollywood.

If we move chronologically, the first expression of “artistic license” in the film is the rodeo. The opening scene is a raunchily intimate one under the stalls at the rodeo. A rodeo that had no place at all in the real Woodruff's life. This is an add in from the writers. Some have suggested that the rodeo is a metaphor for... something, who knows what? The only benefit I can draw from it is that it drives home the “Dallas”, Texan aesthetic.

The second is the removal of Woodruff's girlfriend, and the apparent sex change of his doctor. It seems that his girlfriend and his doctor were merged into one character, but why? Simple: the Hollywood flirtation factor. Every box-office hit needs a romantic subplot after all. [Or maybe it was to make rom-com McCon more comfortable with the script!]

The third, and most disconcerting is the liberty with which the writers portray Woodruff. The Hollywood Ron seems to be a twisted caricature: he's very texan, very homophobic, very 'masculine', very sleezy, very offensive, and violently alcoholic. In fact, what does he share with the real Ron? A haircut and a life-threatening disease, and that's about as far as it goes. Oh wait, the Buyers' Club, too. He wasn't a rodeo-goer, he wasn't single, and apparently he wasn't homophobic. Some of his friends have even said they wouldn't be surprised if he had been bisexual himself. Not exactly the player we see in the film.

So there it is. This film is fiction posing as truth. Inspired by Ron Woodruff's life, not an account of it. We've seen this with almost every historical drama in the industry; the truth is dressed up to be entertaining.The Baader Meinhof Komplex [Uli Edel, 2008] is guilty of a similar crime – disguising historical figures as celebrities for entertainment value. It's a eternal problem: entertainment versus accuracy. To be honest, I don't think that the historical account is suitable for the screen. If you have to sacrifice reality, it's not a reliable way to convey meaning.

That's not to say this isn't a good film. It's to say it isn't an accurate one. Like I said, I loved the film and could watch it to the death, but I will have a hard time forgiving it for the liberties it's taken. And for the effect it's had on the once beautiful McConaughey's physique, but that's another matter all together.