To borrow and paraphrase from On the Waterfront, the HBO movie adaptation of The Normal Heart could have been a contender. Let me rewind a little in time and explain. When I saw a somewhat recent revival of Larry Kramer’s incendiary play, I, like the rest of the audience, was visibly emotionally drained. There was not a dry eye in the house, not even this hardened critic’s, and deservedly so. More remarkably, while drying away those tears, myself and the other audience members walked away feeling palpably furious. Kramer’s polemic on the powerlessness the gay community felt in the early 1980s in New York City to fight the then mysterious epidemic of AIDS and a government unwilling to do anything but turn a blind eye to the flailing community, had the flagrant power to rally our audience to do something, anything, to help those still fighting the very much still rampant worldwide disease. Though at times a heavy-handed play, I suspect that ‘The Normal Heart’ has incited a fiery passion in its call to action in many an audience member since it opened off Broadway in 1985 (many presume that its outright criticisms of suspected homosexual former New York mayor Ed Koch is to blame for it taking until 2011 for it to debut on Broadway).

When it was announced that director Ryan Murphy would be adapting the material into a movie (whisking the rights away from previous owner Barbra Streisand), I thought, the source material is so movingly brilliant that there’s no way he could ruin it. True, the ‘Glee’ creator had previously taken beloved novels Running with Scissors and Eat Pray Love and turned those into cringe-worthy films, but I refused to believe that he could do the same to ‘The Normal Heart’. After viewing the film I can report that although the directing is amateur (at best), the top-notch acting (led by stars Mark Ruffalo, Alfred Molina, Matt Bomer and Joe Mantello) ensure that this remains a powerhouse must see.

Kramer’s largely autobiographical screenplay centers on cinematic stand-in Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo) and his increasingly frenetic milk cart rallying to catalytically create change in how both the gay community deals with the AIDS crisis and how the government mishandles the issue. With the help of Doctor Emma Brookner (Julia Roberts) and his cyclonic whirlwind of destructive passion for the subject, Weeks assembles the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an advocacy group hell bent on educating the masses about “gay cancer”. Among the close-knit leaders of the group are health care worker Mickey (Joe Mantello), the epitome of Southern charm and compassion, Tommy (Jim Parsons, reprising his role from the 2011 Broadway revival), and closeted spokesman Bruce (Taylor Kitsch, completely miscast in the role). He also becomes romantically entangled with New York Times writer Felix (Matt Bomer), who over the course of the film softens the emotionally cold and abrasive Weeks as his body rapidly deteriorates from the disease.

As previously mentioned, the acting showcase is tangibly raw and powerful. Bomer, Mantello and Roberts in particular disappear into their roles (Bomer quite literally so, as he lost an astonishing 40 pounds for the part) and are mesmerizing in their individual emotive spotlight monologues. I only wish they were in the more capable hands of director Mike Nichols (who skillfully adapted plays Closer and Angels in America, among others, for cinema), instead of director Ryan Murphy. Still, The Normal Heart is worth watching for the screenplay and acting alone. I just wish it incited more anger over the helplessness to defeat AIDS instead of just anger over the poor directorial choices made in the film.

[star v=35]