Love & Other Drugs

I enjoyed the chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Hathaway quite a bit. It's definitely the selling point of this film and makes it watchable. The story involving pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industry is interesting, as is the late 90s setting. The film ultimately falls into typical rom com conventions though. However, the chemistry of the two leads and the focus on the struggle of Parkinson's help make this one slightly rise above the pack.

In 1996, the womanizer salesman Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses his job in an electronic store after shagging her coworker. Jamie is hired by Pfizer to sell Zoloft with his colleague Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt) and he uses his charm to seduce the receptionists and reach the doctors to convince them to prescribe Pfizer's drugs.

When he meets the twenty-six year-old Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), they have sex on the first date. Maggie is a free spirit that has stage one Parkinson's disease and does not want to have a steady relationship. However, after a period, they both have a feeling that they have never felt before: love. But Jamie is promoted and need to move to Chicago and Maggie is afraid of her degenerative disease.

"Sex & Other Drugs" is a pleasant romance where the former Disney movies' actress Anne Hathaway shines with a bold role of a young woman that loves sex having to deal with Parkinson disease. Her character is very hot and her love scenes have a high level of eroticism. The bitter criticism to the pharmaceutical industry and corrupted doctors is unusual in American films.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a good actor in action films but he has a wooden performance in the role of a wolf that uses his appeal to be an efficient salesman. Josh Gad is annoying and his inconvenient character is never funny. Oliver Platt has a minor participation. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Amor e Outras Drogas" ("Love and Other Drugs")

The movie starts out as a generic and even pedestrian romantic comedy and appears to be headed in the typical cliché driven direction but, fortunately, evolves in to something more. Jake Gyllenhaal's character and his alleged "funny" fat side kick are established almost purposefully as illustrations of what's wrong with most romantic comedies. It's Anne Hathaway's character that is the catalyst for the transformation from two dimensional rom-com to something deeper and more enjoyable. As she is fleshed out (pun intended because the more Anne Hathaway nudity the better) her character forces both Gyllenhaal's character and the film itself to grow (almost Viagra like). What follows is a deep, sometimes moving and genuinely interesting film. Commentary about battling illness, life and enjoying the moment are all relevant and poignant. Even supporting characters are given moments to shine. Oliver Pratt's drug rep has a wonderful scene delivered over dinner and there's even a smart drunken ramble explaining what is wrong with being a doctor and a commentary on the state of the Hippocratic Oath. From an emotionless and even tedious start, this film surprised me and is worth the price of a ticket.

Love stories are essentially the same -- it's a matter of how you dress them up. Many will see through "Love and Other Drugs" and count the romance clichés and formulaic characters, others will find the 1996 setting and the pharmaceutical angle refreshing. Both forces are hard at work in this film, but the tipping point goes in favor thanks to the leads, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. There's a reason most romantic films are judged based on the chemistry of their lead actors. When it comes to romance, it's not about how cleverly written the two characters are and how unique and special they feel to us. What counts is whether they can convince you of their attraction/love and get you to -- without blunt coercion -- invest in what happens to them. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have what it takes to do just that in spite of a script that sometimes tries to lean too hard on conventional tactics of boys meets girl. Gyllenhaal plays Jamie, an expert salesman who lands a gig as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Pfizer, right before Viagra hit the market. He's also adept at landing any woman he desires. He epitomizes a Don Juan and he's plays the type well, but when you can predict that he'll end up in bed with the next attractive woman that shows up on screen, the writing has taken it a bit far. As good of a filmmaker as Edward Zwick is, his best credits include "Glory," "The Last Samurai" and "The Blood Diamond" -- not exactly romance. He co-wrote the script (based on Jamie Reidy's memoir) with longtime collaborator Marshall Herskovitz and thriller writer Charles Randolph ("The Interpreter"), so no real romantic comedy prowess exists among them, hence the tendency to stick with genre conventions. One such convention is Jamie's brother (Josh Gad), who plays the little brother crashing on Jamie's couch who has a porn addiction and makes clueless statements, usually to the tune of no laughs, but he does help break the tension. Enter girl. Jamie meets Maggie, a bit of a free-spirited cynic who (in a unique twist) has way early onset Parkinson's. Many will be quick to jump on the "diseased girl" archetype, but don't judge Hathaway's prowess that quickly. As completely pathetic as Maggie's self-esteem might be and how strictly anti-commitment she is, when her character caves in to the romance as they all do, Hathaway gives Maggie a believable fragility rather than a melodramatic tone. Jamie's motives for wanting to spend more time with Maggie and not simply continuing his streak of banging all who possess lady parts are reduced to the reason of "she's playing hard to get," which is not the best of reasons. The same can be said about Maggie constantly accusing Jamie of having pity sex with the diseased girl. However, watching these two charm each other and overcome the cliché has a definite appeal. The two spend a lot of naked time together, making "Love and Other Drugs" the best date movie this holiday season. But on a serious note, the drug angle and the "recent past" setting give us something else to chew on, which is nice. Zwick never truly marries that story line with the romance except "Jamie sells drugs and Maggie has a disease that lacks an effective one." The thematic ties are not quite there despite the plot coincidences and the fitting title. "Love and Other Drugs" is hardly the cure for the common romantic comedy, but the consistent dosage of its two stars by and large pushes away those symptoms. ~Steven C

This film surprised me in a good way.

From the trailer and the posters to be found in many of the bus shelters of our town it would have been fair to have expected a routine rom-com. The pose struck by the leads Jake Gylenhall & Anne Hathaway on that poster just screamed "knock about rom-com,just like hundreds of others" It isn't though and that was a pleasant and engaging surprise.

Jake Gylenhall pulls off the role of super bright but super slacker son Jamie in a high achieving family well and is convincing as a magnetising presence that women find irresistible.

The absence of Anne Hathaway's character Maggie in the first segment of the film is the first suggestion that this will not be a routine paint by numbers romance and Maggie's introduction sets the scene for the complex character she successfully portrays.

This film covers a lot of ground and both of the leads are engaging and believable.

Issues such as serious illness, the workings of the big pharmaceutical companies and their attempts to influence the decision making of medical professionals, the struggle people have to pay for treatment and a believably complex love story are woven in without significant signposting or obvious plot twists.

Once again, the two lead actors were excellent and overall this made for an enjoyable and engaging film