Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical The Normal Heart, based on his play with the same name, offers up some of the best acting you will see in any movie or TV show.
Mark Ruffalo plays Ned Weeks, a character Kramer loosely based upon himself. He’s a gay journalist with a blasé attitude about love and life. When visiting a party at Fire Island in 1981, one of the revelers falls to his knees, coughing, on the shoreline. In this moment, Ned and his friends are introduced to AIDS.
What follows is a history-based dramatization of what happened to a group of men and doctors trying to raise AIDS awareness against a backdrop of citizen indifference and political blocking. The film addresses the controversial stance taken by New York City mayor Ed Koch, with the Weeks character proclaiming that their (allegedly) closeted gay mayor and politicians like him were essentially out to murder the gay population.
Ruffalo is astoundingly good here, as is Julia Roberts as a lone doctor screaming in the wilderness for people to identify the illness and find a cure. Both performers have moments in this movie that are better than anything else they have ever done.
The same can be said for the likes of Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons, BD Wong, Matt Bomer, Alfred Molina and Joe Mantello. Kitsch is especially good as Bruce Niles, a friend of Weeks who essentially becomes his adversary as Weeks’ protesting tactics become more and more controversial.
HBO was already a leader in gay cinema with And the Band Played On (1993) and the amazing Angels in America (2003). This further establishes them as a leader in bold, important cinematic projects.
Who needs movie theaters, right?