YMMV / The Normal Heart

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• Adorkable: Ned, in the film, though it's in the script as well. He has no idea how to express his attraction to another human being — witness his introduction to Felix, which is "I'm Ned Weeks — and you're very cute," — and is an absolutely hopeless romantic to boot. And... well, he's played by Mark Ruffalo.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ned Weeks' off-Broadway originator Brad Davis lost his life to HIV.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Ned and Felix, dancing.
    Ned: Imagine if we had this when we were young. No fear, no shame...
    Felix: All I was imagining all those years was you.
  • So simple, yet so profound: Larry Kramer, the real-life Ned Weeks, lived to see full, federal marriage equality in the United States of America. They did it.
• Questionable Casting: Emma, a wheelchair user since childhood due to polio is played by able-bodied Julia Roberts.
• Tear Jerker: This could basically be renamed Tear Jerker: The Movie.
  • "Please, God, give us one more year."
  • According to Matt Bomer, filming the final hospital scene was so profoundly traumatic that he and Mark Ruffalo held on to each other and sobbed for minutes on end, to the point where the rest of the cast and crew left the set so they could be alone together.

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