Time to put some meat on the bones of the Dallas Buyers Club as the first trailer for Jean-Marc Vallee's Oscar-tickler hits the internet.

Dallas Buyers Club stars Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof, a HIV-positive Texan who smuggled illegal Aids medications across the border from Mexico in defiance of the US Food and Drug Administration. Woodroof, who died six years after his diagnosis, developed a ring of clients across Texas who would buy his alternative medicines from him. A womanising, hedonistic hellraiser, he became an unlikely champion for patients' rights.

McConaughey's being tipped for a best actor nomination at next March's Oscars and the trailer isn't shy about showing off his range. We've got freewheelin' good time boy, anguished terminal illness sufferer and issue-driven political activist all in one. There's room too for Jared Leto's Rayon - a transgender patient who teams up with Woodroof - to make his mark. The wig, the make-up and the gloriously high heels help.

We were a little worried that the Dallas Buyers Club would wobble between genres - romance, comedy, thriller - in the hope of reaching a sentimental happy ending of sorts. But the trailer makes Vallee's film look darker and spicier than we expected. As much a crime caper as a weepy about one man's fight against debilitating illness. What do you think?

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