“LOVE & OTHER DRUGS” (Jake Gyllenhaal & Anne Hathaway)
As a light hearted ‘rom-com’, “Love and Other Drugs” made me chuckle frequently.
As a depressing medical drama, “Love and Other Drugs” made me get a bit emotional (Bringing out my rarely seen girlie-man side)
As an ambitious story of a young man that discovers his niche in life and suddenly starts climbing the corporate ladder to success, “Love & Other Drugs” didn’t bore me to tears.
So there’s a lot going on in this movie – A sh**load, in fact – and it’s all over the place in trying to decide what it wants to be when it grows up.
If someone were to tell me they didn’t like it because of that, I wouldn’t argue with them, but somehow the variety of styles worked all right for me & I would recommend ‘L & O D’ as a worthwhile diversion from the depression that is upon us... & by that I mean the ‘holiday’ season.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall; a likable sleazy womanizer. Jamie is likable because he comes across as being sincere – he isn’t just adding notches to his bedpost, he beds women because he’s a good looking guy that women throw themselves at & he simply obliges them. But unlike most walking hard ons, Jamie doesn’t have to turn on the fake charm to suit his prurient interests - he appears to be naturally debonair.
When Jamie lands a job as a pharmaceutical rep for Pfizer he uses his boyish charm to smooze his way into places he should never be allowed. While posing as an intern for a horny MD (Hank Azaria as Dr. Stan Knight) Jamie is present when a young Parkinson’s patient comes in for an exam (Anne Hathaway’s Maggie) and Jamie is immediately smitten.
This is where ‘Love & Other Drugs’ takes on another film style – pornography.
I can’t remember the last time I viewed this many nude scenes in a mainstream film. I never watched the ‘Princess’ films Anne made with Mary Poppins, so it wasn’t a shock to me to see her cavorting about au naturel.
Even though it was shown in the trailer, a scene where Maggie comes into Jamie’s apartment dressed only in a raincoat made me laugh – I have to say that it was from actually seeing her naked when Jamie’s dorky little brother sees her that made it funnier than the preview version.
I’ve always been a fan of Oliver Platt and he makes a nice comeback of sorts here as Jamie’s supervisor, Bruce. When given decent material, Platt can deliver and he does so here with many humorous lines.
But be prepared, the light ‘n’ breezy chick flick material gets brushed aside when “Love & Other Drugs’ decides to become a heavy medical drama.
Jamie’s annoying little brother, Josh is inserted at this time to try to provide comedic relief – maybe it was due to the fact that the film took a depressing turn that I found the chubby whiner more amusing during this stage than when he first appears.
Despite being the ‘downer’ character, Hathaway’s Maggie gets the lion’s share of the smart-alec quips as she seems to be the indifferent one that only wants to have sex and not a relationship. It becomes clear that as Jamie falls for Maggie, she wishes that he wouldn’t.
In the beginning, Jamie allows Maggie to control their relationship but as she becomes a walking mass of depression, he switches into protective lover mode
and Maggie rejects him.
I’ve always said the best movies for me are the ones that can make you feel a gamut of emotions, but I normally like things mixed up more than they are in ‘L & O D’. But I’d still say it is worth seeing as long as you’re aware that it isn’t your typical ‘rom-com’ –
it’s R-rated (& if you find nudity distasteful, consider it to be NC-17)
it’s full of immature boner humor (When Jamie starts selling Viagra)
and it takes that dreaded ‘dramatic’ turn.
Whereas Gyllenhaal & Hathaway had no relationship as a married couple in their first film together, the sex scenes in this are so graphic even I felt a bit uncomfortable ‘peeking’ in on their private intimate moments. But I’m betting that Jake had more fun filming these scene with Anne than he did with the late Heath Ledger in ‘Ride ‘Em, Cowboy Mountain’.
2 comments:
Oh... I really love this movie. Do those two have great chemistry or what ? I'm surprised they don't date. They seem so natural together.
From reading certain reviews I heard this was adapted from a true story, but I always make the habit of asking a few people what they think or thought of the movie, and the manager told me that he liked the book better. I was surprised, because I thought this was a true story, but he had told us, that Edward Zwick embellished the story and that the Maggie person was not in the book. She is made up. He told us that even though he had no problems with the movie, to check out the book because it takes on a whole other slant on the pharm industry. Maybe I will.
As for performances, I think it's both the co-leads best of their career and it was nice to see Jill Clayburgh looking like she was never sick. A nice send off.
To add to your comment ML, the book is much different from the film. I actually think a true adaptation of Hard Sell would have made for a better and somewhat controversial movie.
But Hollywood rarely makes a film without a female lead. They Hollwooded the book.
I still liked the film for what it was as it's own entity.
I don't think this will garner any Oscar nominations, though I would put both Jake and Anne in my top 5 so far.
I also say a here, here to Jill Clayburgh. She was my first Hollywood older lady crush when I was a kid from seeing her in Semi-Tough. Anyway, I thought People and EW did lame small tributes to her. She should have got more time than than freaking Kim Kardashian's 4 page layout.
Post a Comment