McCONAUGHEY’S MOMENT
The shirtless wonder matures in serious role as HIV patient
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallée
Running time: 117 minutes Rating: 18A Playing at: Landmark 7 Ottawa,
Gatineau 9
The first thing you notice in Dallas Buyers Club is the transformation of Matthew McConaughey.
It’s a metamorphosis that has been developing for years: the shirtless hunk of lightweight romcom has slowly become a real screen presence, one whose grit (as a stripper in Magic Mike, or an escape convict in Mud, or a dirty cop in Killer Joe) plays against his genial manner. It didn’t hurt that as McConaughey evolved from sex object to actor, his pecs didn’t suffer any collateral damage.
Now, though, that has changed as well. Playing an electrician-cumrodeo cowboy named Ron Woodroof, McConaughey lost almost 50 pounds. He is skeletal, a lean good old boy whose moustache and sideburns make him look dangerous somehow, but not in any way that would raise concerns in Dallas in 1985.
Woodroof is sick, but he doesn’t know it. He has been diagnosed with HIV.
“I ain’t no faggot, m-f,” Woodroof tells the doctors who deliver the news. “I don’t even know no faggots.”
Woodroof had reason to be baffled. In the middle of the AIDS epidemic, he has been diagnosed with the disease and given 30 days to live.