The Normal Heart 2014

Finally this early story of the early days and heartbreak of the AIDS epidemic makes it to the screen, true its the small screen but this is indeed very strong stuff with some really beautiful and heartbreaking performances and incidents that pretty much left me shattered. I know this story well. Set among a group of gay friends in 1981 who don’t have much on their agendas except partying and sex they are soon dealing with their friends dying terrible deaths from a mysterious disease. The film is based on Larry Kramer’s angry autobiographical play which had a recent successful Broadway revival. Kramer is called here Ned Weeks and is played by the great actor Mark Ruffalo who gets angry and political as Kramer in real life did, ruffling many feathers but getting things moving. The film shows the formation of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the many battles both in the organization and out, and although many names have been changed, the villains as seen by Kramer are not protected including Mayor Koch, President Reagan and his gang of homophobes and the medical establishment who did nothing to help with this nightmare in the early years. Its all true. Also terrific are Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer and Joe Mantello and although not a big fan of Julia Roberts she does pretty well as the only doctor in New York City who was willing to take on the patients and fight the medical establishment. Robert’s character who is in a wheel chair because of childhood polio is based on Dr. Linda Laubenstein. I would have preferred a better actress (Marcia Gay Harden or Stockard Channing come to mind) than Roberts but as I said she does give a good try in this difficult role and her movie star status no doubt helped in getting the film made. This is not an easy film to watch but I certainly think it is worth a view especially for those who didn’t live through this awful time. The film is very well done with direction by Ryan Murphy and a good feel for New York City in the early 80’s even though as has been pointed out the subway cars are too clean for the period and some of the characters and incidents are a little too pat and clichéd. Winner of the Emmy for best TV movie of 2014.