Love & Other Drugs (2010)

I was very surprised to find this movie to my liking. I went (rather grudgingly I'll admit) to see this movie and I was blown away, it wasn't just a comedy, it wasn't just a romance, it was a deep, intricate experience that mirrors (to the best of hollywood's ability) the real relational component that we never really know what will come next with any of our relationships. This movie throws you for several unexpected twists and turns but this is one not to miss! Do be warned it's rated R for a reason, you see just about everything Hathaway and Gyllenhaal have to offer. This movie also packs some pretty good comic value. Ultimately its a heartwarming story about a man who had never found a desire to approach anything with all of his heart and/or ability until he meets Maggie, then everything changes. This will definitely be added to my personal collection just as soon as it comes on DVD.

I loved this movie. It had me laughing, and crying, and it was sexy, and poignant, and very, very well acted. Jake and Anne are wonderful together. Very believeable. I could have done with a little less of the "brother" character, played by Josh Gad, and I wish Jake had more scenes with Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt, but I really did love it. When it ended, I just wanted to go right back to the beginning again!

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LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS is based on Jamie Reidy's highly regarded novel 'Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesmen' and as adapted for the screen by Charles Randolph, Marshall Herskowitz and Edward Zwick (who also directs). It is a little jewel of a film. If the portion of the film that deals far too long with a silly Radio City Music Hall show of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals training program bores the audience (it should have been severely edited for many reasons), it is worth the wait for the actual romance story that follows.

Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) can't hold a job, preferring to focus on womanizing, much to the disdain of his wealthy obese brother Josh (Josh Gad), and his parents (George Segal and Jill Clayburgh in a role that was to be her last). Jamie best friend Bruce (Oliver Platt) joins Jamie in becoming a pharmaceutical rep for Pfizer and the two are placed on the road to push Zoloft and Zithromax, finding that the market is hoarded by Trey Hannigan (Gabriel Macht), an Eli Lily salesman selling Prozac. Jamie encounters Trey in the office of Dr. Knight (Hank Azaria), studies Trey's success and his own failure, and in the process encounters a patient of Dr. Knight, the free spirited gorgeous Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) who has been with both Trey and Dr. Knight. Jamie's lack of success pushing Zoloft suddenly reverses when Pfizer comes out with Viagra: Jamie is a natural to be the leading salesman for this new enhancing drug or is he? There is a strange chemistry that develops between Jamie and Maggie and despite their unlikely qualifications as relationship candidates, each finds in the other the qualities that turn wild one nighters into a solid love affair. Maggie has Parkinsonism and that aspect alters the way each approach the relationship. But it is the magic of how this blossoms into one the screen's best romances that is the gift of the film.

The story is frequently disrupted with sidebars that are supposed to provide comic relief but in the end simply take up too much space away from Jamie and Maggie. Had the film been edited to clean its shelves the way Jamie cleaned the physicians' sample shelves of Prozac the total product would have been even better. What the film brings into focus is the enormously maturing talents of Gyllenhaal and Hathaway: they may just be the next great Hollywood silver screen couple. This is 'a fine (and sensitive) romance' and well worth watching. Grady Harp, March 11

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Jake Gyllenhal's and Anne Hathaway's performances and charisma made this a great watch for me. They are both compelling and beautiful to watch. I liked the story too, it was different from your standard Rom-Com fare, with Hathaway's character struggling with Parkinson's disease, and Gyllenhal's good-time boy having to grow-up to deal with it. The drug company sub-plot got a little heavy-handed, as did some of the psycho-babble speeches ("tell me 4 good things about yourself" she says to him at one point a little too self-help-workshoppy to feel real.) But still a good movie, and certainly a step above your average romantic comedy.

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Having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in my forties, I felt at times that I was watching a movie about myself. The little tremors that you aren't even thinking about that someone else notices, the overwhelming desire to joke about it, the frustration of dropping glasses, all rang true. Most of all, Jake Gyllenhall captures perfectly the looks and concerns of the partner of a person with Parkinson's Disease, and some of the dialogue could have been straight out of my marriage. I think the movie tied together more than the critics understood. The importance of sex in the movie becomes clear in the one scene where she tremors during love making, and he tenderly and naturally holds her shaking hand. The fear of the person with Parkinson's disease that she will hold back her partner from enjoying his life and the need to be accepted as is (incurably sick) are all extremely sensitively portrayed. Jake Gyllenhall perfectly captures that look of love mixed with concern that makes a person with Parkinson's Disease want to send their partner away. But, he gets it right in the end, when the look changes to just love, and he finally, but simply says "it's okay".

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