Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
The Normal Heart is a drama set in New York during the beginning of the AIDS crisis.
The film opens on Fire Island in 1981 while Ned (Mark Ruffalo) is celebrating Craig’s (Jonathan Groff) birthday with a group of friends. Although Craig is young and healthy, he collapses on the beach and later begins coughing uncontrollably while blowing out the candles on his cake.
When Ned travels back to New York City, he reads a news headline stating that 41 homosexuals were diagnosed with a rare cancer. Ned visits Dr. Emma Brookner (Julia Roberts), a physician who has been working with gay men who have suddenly become sick, to get more information. She tells Ned that she believes the virus is spread through sexual intercourse, but gay men wont; listen to her. She then asks if he can help her, and Ned agrees.
As more men become sick and the city refuses to acknowledge that anything is amiss, Ned and his friends establish the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which includes a hotline where people can call for information and counseling.
With little coverage on the health crisis, Ned seeks the help of a New York Times columnist, Felix Turner (Matt Bomer). Soon Felix gets involved with the GMHC, and he and Ned begin dating. What follows is a depiction of the rise of AIDS and the GMHC up to1985.
Some Thoughts:
Despite being a fictionalized account of the start of the AIDS epidemic, The Normal Heart accurately depicts that time and how the LGBT community dealt with the it, complete with infighting. The acting overall is decent, with fine performances coming out of Ruffalo, Bomer, and Julia Roberts as Dr. Emma Brookner. The story flows well and is easy to follow.
Although there’s very little to criticize, there are times when the film becomes a little heavy handed, such as the men with Kaposi Sarcoma lesions covering their faces in the flickering light of a subway car. Aside from that, everything comes together very well.
For anybody looking to understand the early years of the AIDS crisis, this is a good place to start. It’s pièce à clef, so the names of the actual people depicted in the film can be easily uncovered with a little research.
The Final Verdict:
The Normal Heart is an important film about a dark period in LGBT history.