Directed by: Ryan Murphy
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Alfred Molina, Taylor Kitsch
Growing up a teenager in the 80's, news stories about AIDS became commonplace by 1985, but it was still considered a "gay disease" then, even though heterosexuals were dying from it as well. The Normal Heart explores the time before AIDS became the problem Ronald Reagan could ignore no longer. It took four years after the onset of the disease for Reagan to even mention the word AIDS in public, and even after recognizing its destruction, he still wasn't exactly generous with federal funding to treat AIDS.
The movie, based on Larry Kramer's play and written by Kramer himself, is an angry, stark film in which early AIDS activists are ignored by the bureaucratic machines in New York and Washington because "it was that gay disease." Its protagonist, writer Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), based on Kramer himself, sees the refusal of the government to supply funding to fight the disease as part of a conspiracy to kill homosexuals. Was that a stretch? Possibly, but how else could frustrated homosexual men see it? Their friends were dying from a disease that was only recently given a name, and no one except them seemed to care. The fact that homosexuals were treated like second-class citizens made them even more suspicious of the government's lack of concern.
Weeks expresses his frustration and pain in articles and through his work with Gay Men's Health Crisis center, which he co-founded. He appeared on TV talk shows ready for a fight, making accusations and outing closeted homosexuals, which went against unwritten rules within the gay community. He upset members of his own board of directors as much as government officials. This comes from years worth of struggling to gain acceptance with his attorney brother Ben (Molina) and society at large. Yet, we still care about him despite his abrasive personality because we sense his frustration and his hurts. AIDS soon afflicts his lover Felix (Bomer) and he is powerless to stop it. Ruffalo's performance allows us to understand the motivations behind his anger and his dogged pursuit of what he perceives as the truth. That makes it all the more moving.
The Normal Heart doesn't go for the easy payoffs and there are no easy answers. We see men we were just introduced to suddenly dying almost before we get a chance to know them. We witness AIDS patients quarantined in hospitals due to staff fears. As Tommy Boatwright (Parsons) states eloquently in a eulogy, "Our social calendars revolve around going to funerals." Parsons never raises his voice, but convincingly displays his anger and bewilderment over the fact that suddenly his friends are dying in great numbers. Tommy employs a sad, effective device for the audience and for himself to mark the passing of those he knew: He takes their names out of his rolodex and rubber bands the cards up in another desk drawer. It's heartbreaking to see how quickly the cards multiply.
Julia Roberts is also on hand as Dr. Emma Brookner, who treats AIDS patients by the boatload despite her physical limitations caused by polio. She passionately pleads with the gay community to stop having indiscriminate sex and pleads with the federal government to fund treatment. She believes it to be a sexually transmitted disease, despite no available test. Dr. Brookner only confirms if someone has the disease when they show up at her office with Kaposi's Sarcoma or any number of telltale signs. Back then, such symptoms would lead to death in a short time.
The Normal Heart covers ground also covered with Longtime Companion (1990) and And The Band Played On (1993) about the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. But The Normal Heart is angrier and lays blame on the outbreak with the Reagan administration. It is not a timid film and finds a way to juxtapose personal heartbreak with frustration caused by bureaucratic red tape. It is not afraid to debunk the ongoing myth that somehow the Reagan presidency were "the good old days." Reagan is seen nowadays as a conservative god filtered through revisionist history. Try telling Larry Kramer about Reagan's legacy.
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