I finally watched "The Normal Heart" the other night after missing the HBO premiere by being at a dance in Brooklyn. (I know!) It was a classic case of expectations are everything -- having seen and loved the play, mine were exceedingly high -- only I ended up hearing so many negative things about it that I would up being pleasantly surprised when I finally tuned in. One thing that did take me aback -- and my friends Chris and Brian mentioned this too -- was that the HIV Plus coverman's beauty was borderline distracting in the beginning of the film. (Crisis? What crisis? Is he gonna get naked? How can this person really exist?) I guess it's not his fault(!), but then the more I thought about it the more I realized his casting was intentional, as a metaphor for the generation of men -- many very young and very beautiful -- that was wiped out as the world sat by and yawned. Ryan Murphy famously ruined "Running With Scissors" and "Eat, Pray, Love." But I would say he at least broke even with Larry Kramer's masterpiece. If nothing else, successfully making the movie will introduce the work -- if not the entire subject -- to a massive audience who never got to see the theatrical version.
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