Love And Other Drugs
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Hank Azaria, Oliver Platt
Director: Ed Zwick
It's back to the heady mid 90s with this new film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.
Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, a man who has the gift of the gab. This guy can sell you anything with his charm - as well as himself to the ladies. After being kicked out of his latest job, Randall (a med school drop out) decides to enter the world of pharmaceutical drugs sales with a company called Pfizer.
So Randall applies his talents to selling the drugs and staking out the doctors to encourage them to sell their brand of anti depressant rather than Prozac. Throw in Viagra into the mix too and Randall's in heaven.
And that's where Randall meets Maggie (a brown doe eyed Anne Hathaway) who's at the doctor's to get drugs for her stage one Parkinson's disease. But there's an instant attraction and the pair end up having a one night stand.
Randall falls hard for Maggie - but the road to romance is always tough - particularly if both sides have their own problems and demons to battle.
Love And Other Drugs is an odd sort of film - it starts off with tremendous, lusty gusto with wide-eyed Jake charming the pants (literally)off everything that moves. That bravado and braggadocio are pushed even further when he pairs up with Anne Hathaway and the film heads into a sex comedy (particularly with the addition of Jamie's down on his luck, kicked out by his wife brother played by Jack Black/ Jonah Hill cross Josh Gad) complete with plenty of sex, smut and humour. There are some great, funny moments in this portion of the film - however, there's a slight problem with the film.
Halfway through, there's a complete tonal change and it becomes romantic drama with a good dose of obstacles thrown in for good measure.
That tonal change happens so fast (although, to be fair, it's signposted from early on) that you almost feel like you're watching a completely different film as it heads towards the end.
But, when performances are as compelling as they are from Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway (who have sizzling steamy chemistry), you can almost forgive them anything. The duo has an easy chemistry and a sparky rapport which works well on the big screen. But it's Hathaway who delivers the more naked performance of the two - both physically and emotionally. She has a warmth and is so believable that you can't help falling for her character.
However, those are nearly derailed by some of the staples of romantic drama - the sweeping speeches over piano music threaten to ruin all which has gone before.
Love And Other Drugs is like a pill in many ways - it may offer
you dizzying highs but as with any wonder drug, there's side
effects afterwards.
