Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013) is a good film with a problematic message. Jean-Marc Vallee's film pits Everyman Matthew McConaughey against a heartless drug-manufacturing consortium. If the content clanks occasionally, it's still anchored by solid drama.

Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is a hard-living electrician and rodeo cowboy in 1980s Dallas. After an accident, he's diagnosed with AIDS and given just 30 days to live. Woodroof undergoes a regimen of experimental AZT drug which only makes him sicker. He travels to Mexico, discovering that disgraced Dr. Vass (Griffin Dunne) a combination of drugs that works better than AZT. Woodroof teams with another AIDS patient, transsexual Rayon (Jared Leto), to distribute these drugs through a buyers' club. His activities catch the eye of FDA Agent (Michael O'Neill), who acts to shut down Woodruff's operation.

Dallas Buyers Club makes for a perfect libertarian fable. The FDA and pharmaceutical companies fast track AZT in dangerous doses - either addressing a desperate need over-eagerly or a callow conspiracy to make a buck. Of course it's Dr. Vass, disgraced, de-licensed and living in Mexican exile, who harnesses the miracle cures! Vallee and writers Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack try to soft pedal this, for instance by showing Ron overdose on one of his medications. But Dallas sees no problem with Ron running drugs from Japan or shipping black market meds to his policeman friend (Steve Zahn).

The criticism, that government regulations slow or curtail availability of medications, is fair enough. Especially in the context of the AIDS epidemic, where public panic and need for a useful cure outpacing the speed of bureaucracy. But this reviewer finds it dangerous to generalize with such matters. Enough cases of doctor shopping and drug abuse, let alone quack pills and tainted drugs, show that FDA regulations make sense. Dallasreally only needs a push towards destructive nonsense like anti-vaccine paranoia, which does more than theoretical damage.

Even those who don't buy Dallas's conceit should appreciate its human element. Woodroof's transformation to hotshot black marketer seems improbable, but becomes an extension of his wild lifestyle. If he develops a friendship for Rayon he never fully sheds his prejudices: his first instinct when meeting a straight woman patient is to take her to bed. Even his pseudo-romance with Dr. Saks has its poignant moments. Rayon is sensitively rendered, avoiding the pitfalls of the "gay best friend" stereotype: he gets nice moments away from Woodroof, like meeting his disapproving father.

Matthew McConaughey's impressive performance helps too. Continuing his recent transition from pretty boy to serious actor, McConaughey sheds weight and otherwise commits. Ron softens without losing his essential character, the hardest kind of character arcs. His natural brashness re-channels boozing and whoring into criminal enterprise, thumbing his nose at arrogant doctors and pesky G-Men. It's a nice turn, sparkling with a nuance I'd never have expected from the star of U-571 and Failure to Launch.

Jared Leto avoids playing up stereotype, giving Rayon humor and warmth, making him suitably tragic when necessary. The other cast members aren't so impressive. Jennifer Garner is fairly colorless, while Denis O'Hare and Michael O'Neill play as too obvious of villains.

Dallas Buyers Club is good despite being rough around its thematic edges. Perhaps Groggy's being a statist scrooge, but the movie's message is too case-dependent for me to jump on board. That said, it's still an enjoyable show, with a message that engages you even if you're in disagreement.

The Young Victoria

If you like your lavish historical costume dramas without a whit of originality or real drama, then The Young Victoria is for you. It isn't a bad film by any means, but like so many films of this ilk, it seems all of the effort went into creating lavish sets, costumes and cinematography, with precious little expended on story and characterization. To the extent that it is worth watching, it's mostly for the charm of Emily Blunt and her chemistry with Rupert Friend.

England in the 1830's. The ailing King William IV (Jim Broadbent) appoints his niece, the young, impetuous Victoria (Emily Blunt), daughter of the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), as his heir apparent. Victoria finds herself a pawn in the games of various schemers, from Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), her mother's ruthlessly ambitious advisor, to Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), Victoria's handsome, seemingly trustworthy friend and later Prime Minister. Into the mix comes Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, sent by his uncle Leopold of Belgium (Thomas Kretschmann) to woo Victoria and secure an England supportive of Continental interests. Albert and Victoria quickly befriend each other, and after Victoria finally ascends to the throne, they fall in love.

The Young Victoria comes off as a watered-down version of Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998), without the passion, gory violence and bodice-ripping sex. Everything is kept resolutely at the PG level, which is fine, but the film is disappointingly flat in the drama department. The schemings of Victoria's family and associates play out without any real passion, tension or wit. The characters are sketchily drawn, scheming archetypes, at times almost interchangable. The sweet romance between Victoria and Albert works due to the chemistry of the performers, but everything else seems as rote and underdeveloped.

So far as the film lets us know, all that came out of Victoria's reign were industrialization of England, social reform, and a huge amount of royal children. Sir Robert Peel (Michael Maloney) and the Bedchamber Crisis are the only significant event after Victoria ascends the throne. No doubt for PC reasons, not even a mention of England's rise to imperial ascendancy under Victoria, surely a more important legacy than her patronage of the arts. It's fair enough that the movie wants to focus on the romance, and it is concededly a nice one, but Victoria was such an important figure that her treatment here comes off as lacking. The strangely abrupt ending doesn't help either; the film feels like it should go on for another half-hour, at least.

Certainly the movie is nice to look at. Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee presents a gorgeous production, full of wonderful period detail and glorious art direction, wonderful use of Buckingham Palace locations, and a nice score by Ilan Eshkeri. This is a trap so many period films fall into; pile on the gorgeous costumes, sets and photography, skimp on the story and characters. And Victoria very much fits into the mould; it's seductive and pleasant to watch, but ultimately rather empty.

Emily Blunt (Sunshine Cleaning) makes a fine Victoria. Not only is she ravishingly beautiful, she gives a solid performance, delicately balancing Victoria's vulnerability, resentment and determination. Rupert Friend (Pride and Prejudice) does well as the awkward, lovestruck Albert: he has great chemistry with Blunt and they make a wonderful couple, going a great way towards redeeming the film's flaws. The supporting cast does well in thankless roles; with actors like Paul Bettany (Master and Commander), Miranda Richardson (Blackadder II), Jim Broadbent (Gangs of New York), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Thomas Kretschmann (Valkyrie) and Julian Glover (Nicholas and Alexandra), it's hard to go wrong.

In the final analysis, The Young Victoria is a handsomely-mounted mediocrity. It has enough virtues to make it watchable, but it errs in reducing one of history's most important and interesting personages to the protagonist of a trite, by-the-numbers melodrama.