Love and Other Drugs

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Plot: Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a slacker and hustler who is trying to break into the pharmceutical sales business. He meets artist Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) who likes him, but does not want a relationship because she has Parkinson's disease. There are sub-plots involving Zoloft and Viagra, as well as Jamie's loser brother Josh.

Review: Love and Other Drugs starts out with two flirty, horny hoties, but then takes a turn through the medical world with sarcasm about anti-depressant sales. Toward the end, living with terminal disease, specifically Parkinson's disease, enter the story.

The two lead actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway have smart dialog throughout the movie, but all the other dialog is just sitcom set-up jokes. Director Zwick dips into one serious bit, flips back to a sex joke or topless scene, and them back to terminal illness. It seems calculating and contrived to keep the future cable-TV audience from drifting away.

It is a romantic drama about living and loving with disease, and then a lot of Viagra jokes. This is a better film than Hot Tube Time Machine for example, but it is schizophrenic too.

I liked the sarcasm with Pfizer, and I wonder how the producers managed to avoid being sued. I am sure their lawyers worked overtime clearing the script, especially with all the comments about Zoloft and Viagra that crept into the film.

The soundtrack was pretty good including some interesting uses of silence.

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Rating: 2.5+ stars, edging toward three stars. The movie was good, but fell down in "funness", especially late.




More: I really loved Maggie's apartment. It did not have any walls, just wall studs and wiring, with big industrial windows, and rough concrete. Funky, arty, off-beat, and also a call-for-help.

Even More: [MAJOR SPOILER] I wonder how families live with late stage Parkinson's disease. It helps to be as cute as Anne Hathaway to get a caregiver.