The Normal Heart

When I sat down to watch The Normal Heart, I had no idea just how much I was about to be moved, amazed, traumatized, enraged, heartbroken, and enlightened. I've been passionate about gay rights and issues ever since I knew what it was to be gay, and I had not one clue how horrible the AIDS epidemic was at its inception. The Normal Heart is an unflinching look at a horrific time in our history where human beings were treated by the masses as garbage. Literally. And that's when they were even being acknowledged at all. Every actor involved gave an Oscar-worthy performance, ironically in a movie that is not eligible for the award. Mark Ruffalo's passion jumps right out of the screen at you, and in both its most angry and its most devastating, you're right there with him. Julia Roberts gives an Erin Brockovich-like performance times ten. Jim Parsons is wonderful in the first role most of us are seeing him outside of Sheldon Cooper, both with his moments of humor and more importantly with his heart. Many kudos also to Taylor Kitsch, Joe Mantello, Alfred Molina, Finn Wittrock, and of course Ryan Murphy for his fearless and beautiful direction. But Matt Bomer... Matt Bomer is THE star among stars, pulling at every single one of your heartstrings in one of the bravest roles ever committed to film. This is without a doubt one of the most important movies you will ever see.

I never cry when watching movies or reading books but this one really got to me. I believe it was an important story that needed to be told. The movie was brought alive by amazing actors (especially Matt Bomer<3) I really do hope that this movie is taken seriously and gets more attention due to the fact that more people need to know about AIDs awareness and because discrimination and segregation still happens within the gay community which I find absolutely disgusting. If we really did believe in equal rights and all that BS we wouldn't be shunning gay people. And for those of you who are saying only gay people can enjoy this movie that is so stupid. I'm 100% straight and loved this definitely I my top 10 fav movies:) I definitely recommend watching this movie!

Movie that details when AIDS hit in 1981...and the government did nothing to stop it (because it was killing just gay men). It has writer Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo) fighting a battle to get the news out and attacking the NYC government for doing nothing to stop it. He also falls in love with Felix Turner (Matt Bomer) a newspaper reporter. It follows him and his friends up to 1984 when the epidemic becomes too big to ignore.

I came out in 1981 and this movie captures EXACTLY what it was like. The anger, fear, hysteria and homophobia surrounding AIDS made life a living hell for gay men. This movie made me cry more than once because it bought back all the memories of friends dying...and no one seemed to care. Ruffalo is GREAT in the lead role. More than once he explodes and perfectly captures the anger and frustration gay men were feeling back then. Basically mostly the entire cast was great. Bomer was good as Felix, Julia Roberts was GREAT as a doctor who is handicapped and very frank and Taylor Kitsch was good as Bruce Niles. The only bad performance was by Jim Parsons. He tries a dramatic role and was terrible. Very wooden. Also the movie is a too long and the ending overly dramatic. Still this is essential viewing....especially for gay teens who have no idea what we went through. VERY depressing but it must be seen.

I'm haunted by memories of gay friends dying in 80's when getting AIDs was a death sentence and no one seemed to care. My boyfriend's brother was one of those Fire Island boys who was so convincingly played by Mark Ruffalo (Ned Weeks). I know Mark as a comedian, but he so captured the anger that must have been felt by so many gay men who's lovers were dying and they could do nothing to stop it, no matter how much money they had. As for Matt Bomer (Felix Turner), I have to say I think he deserves an academy award for his transformation from the handsome dashing man he is, to the gaunt shadow of a figure he became due to his role's AIDs illness. What a real acting force he has become, and this role shows he is so much more than just a handsome face. Also well played was Julia Roberts depiction of Dr. Emma Brookner (Dr. Linda Laubenstein in real life who's unfunded research helped so many), Jim Parsons warm loving portrayal of character Tommy Boatwright who was the heart of the movie and showed the warmth and caring of most gay men I've known, and Taylor Kitsch portrayal of Bruce Niles which showed the reality of Gay men of that era, who feared having their sexual identity out in the public eye with all the negative consequences (harassment, job discrimination, loss of family) of that.

This is a story that people definitely need to see, to understand how this disease spread unchecked for so long. If not for the efforts of men like Ned Weeks and the Gay Activist Alliance's efforts get funding for research when no public official would even acknowledge there was a problem, who know how many more people have died and would be dying today. This is an angry gritty movie, that doesn't hold back from telling it how it was. It's also a heartbreaking story of how people treat others who are outwardly different yet inwardly the same as themselves. Which is why, whether you're gay or straight, you can relate to the sad love story told here, and the heroism of those who fought the battle to find a way to stop the deaths devastating their community. It's shockingly true that our government let this epidemic get out of control and until deaths started affecting the heterosexual community, and famous people (like Rock Hudson) did nothing to stop its rampage.

This is such a well told story. Mark Ruffalo has always been an amazing actor, however here he really takes center stage.He has not had such an impacting role since his breakthrough performance in you can count on me. Julia Roberts and Matt Bomer are also excellent. It is great to see so many great actors coming together to tell such an important story. A scene towards the end of the movie between Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer has particularly stayed with me and really pulled at the heart strings. It is a story that needed to be told and the way the gay community were ignored during this period of time is a disgrace. This is a better movie that the much lauded Dallas Buyers Club and needs to find a wide audience.