Love and Other Drugs

January 30, 2011

Suave Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose charm and gift of gab can sell anything and get women into bed. When he gets into the job of medical representative for Pfizer, he meets a pretty young Parkinson Stage 1 patient Maggie (Anne Hathaway). What starts as a relationship based on casual sex eventually becomes something deeper, and that was when complications come in, with regards to his career against her disease. Which will win out in the end?

Aside from the uncommon setting in the pharmaceutical industry, the story is pretty old hat and familiar. It is also unusual that a romantic comedy movie starring A-list stars will actually feature a lot of nudity from these stars, and place them into B-sex comedy situations. While the first half of the film was zippy and funny, the second half turns serious and draggy in parts. Of course, when there is a disease in the equation, it is bound to turn weepy, and it does.

The chemistry and charm of Jake and Anne is what this film lives on. The two of them look very good and excellent in the delivery of goof-ball dialog. Anne was pretty funny in that scene with her delivery of double entendres about impotence. Although her role turns dramatic towards the end, it is too bad that she had to unfairly compete with Annette Bening (who had a totally serious role in "The Kids Are Alright") for the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy. Jake I think is a natural for this kind of role. I can actually imagine him being like his Jamie character in real life. I don't think he had to do much acting.

The character of Jamie's obese nerdy brother Josh (Josh Gad)was for me totally extraneous and distracting. He does the gross-out comedy here, and frankly it was annoying and unrealistic. The character of Dr. Knight (Hank Azaria) shows the conflict of doctors and pharmaceuticals (which I am familiar with), along with their sexual escapades (which I never knew happens).

For me, the background stories about drug giant Pfizer, the fight of Zoloft vs. Prozac, Viagra, the job of the medical representatives, and the plight of Parkinson patients, are far more interesting than the very basic love story which this movie is telling.