The Normal Heart

I'm really want to see this, even if some of the early reviews  aren't as promising as I'd hoped.

It’s commendable, then, that this glossy version of The Normal Heart sees an HBO airing, complete with A-listers like Mark Ruffalo (as Ned Weeks), Julia Roberts (as Dr. Bruckner), and Matt Bomer (as Felix, Ned’s lover). There’s a lot to applaud about it, as well. Ryan Murphy, who is no stranger to brutal imagery in campy, lighter fare like Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story, pulls no punches when it comes to dramatizing the horrors of AIDS. There are the now-familiar sights of Kaposi’s sarcoma, the dark purple lesions seen on an actor as famous as Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. But Murphy doesn’t shy away from the even more uncomfortable images of a dying body — the wasting away, the shit and the blood. For an audience that may be blissfully ignorant of the disease’s effects on the body, it’s as shocking as Ned Weeks’ screams and shouts were on the stage of the Public Theater in 1985. Additionally, the film includes a rarity: a pretty realistic sex scene between two gay men, which is a feat even for HBO, considering its most recent depictions of gay sex were either played for laughs (as in last year’s Behind the Candelabra) or just felt sterile and lame (as on Looking). -- Tyler Coates from Flavorwire

Not mentioned here, but I'm curious to see Jim Parsons in a serious role. (I really know nothing about his career aside from The Big Bang Theory). Mark Ruffalo as Ned Weeks/Larry Kramer sees entirely wrong but perfect at the same time. The doctor-savior trope is an overused one, and anything that Ryan Murphy touches tends to the treacly, but I'm excited for this film.