Jean-Marc Vallee's film is one that has great significants in our culture. It reveals the reality of being gay, transgender in society and how the world seeks first to act out of cruelty and violence because they won't take the time to understand another human being. Vallee's reveals this through the journey of Ron and Rayon as their relationship creates an evolution for Ron to go through as he is diagnosed with AIDS and begins to experience the hatred the world has against the gay and transgender communities.
Vallee creates meaning through relationship which we can clearly see in the film. An example is when cops come into Ron's hospital room when Dr. Sevard wants to give him AZT once more. This represents the need of Sevard to use restraint to demand what he wants to do, to impose his will upon another without their consent. Another example of Vallee's use of relationship is in the scene where Rayon gives Ron her life insurance money which she sold. The softness of light in Rayon's room, the sole desk light on in Ron's room--both of these create an understanding for the viewer. Ron is running out of room to move forward and Rayon is giving off all the light she can while she is alive, she won't allow others to suffer the way she has when she has the ability to do something about it. And this is the major theme of the film: that others are suffering we have the opportunity to do something about it, it is our choice to either act and fight in love or retreat in fear, or reject out of ignorance.
Vallee's focus on character allows us to experience all of this in the journey of the film and we gain an empathy for the characters in a way that we get to live a couple of hours in their shoes, to experience their fight through the filter of our own lives and imaginations. Mr. Vallee brings forth an emotional film that strikes the chord of justice and compassion not being just words but lives lived toward the reality of them existing on the earth while enduring great suffering and an unimaginable price.
