Movie Review: Love and Other Drugs

Admittedly, the prospect of seeing Jake Gyllenhaal’s naked and artfully covered physique is probably one of the major reasons why women, girls and ladies watched this movie. While not a Gyllanhaal-lover myself, I concede that he does have a cute smile. Oh, and a hawt body. But enough about that. Love and Other Drugs was a conventional drama-rom-com dressed up in a few accessories – early onset Parkinson’s disease, the booming pharmaceutical industry and unconventional characters.

Anne Hathaway plays Maggie, who is in her 20s but has Stage 1 Parkinson’s disease. As a result, her attitude towards life is ‘what the hell – why not?!’ Which is why she decides to get with chronic womaniser and Viagra salesman Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) despite a somewhat turbulent first impression (lets just say Maggie’s handbag makes contact with Jamie’s eye… many times).

At first it’s just casual – they know what they signed up for. But then Jamie realises he loves Maggie in a memorable scene. As a person who has apparently never said those three words to someone before, it’s interesting/funny to see him hyperventilate at the realisation. Then there’s the hurdle of dealing with Maggie’s Parkinson’s. How do you deal with loving someone who you know will need you more than you need them? They break up and make up a number of times before their collective ‘epiphany’ (see below for details).

What surprised me was how effectively the emotional and sentimental scenes tugged on my heartstrings. There are a few very touching (literally, and figuratively… geddit?!) scenes notwithstanding the main ingredient to any rom-com: the ‘epiphany’ – a teary confrontation in rainy or dreary weather, preferably the result of a high-speed pursuit by boy in a car trying to catch up to girl who is ahead of him in a bus/cab/another car, where both boy and girl realise they cannot live without each other. Cue tears/hugging/kissing.

Another quintessential rom-com ingredient included a funny fat guy (we have Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill to thank for this). This time it was in the form of Josh Gad who plays Jamie’s nasty, sexually frustrated, unloved, unshaven younger brother Josh who is unceremoniously dumped by his wife. Some of the funniest lines in the movie came from him.

Cannot believe those two are related. Natural selection sucks.

Also, before seeing this movie I had read a few reviews that warned me that this movie is “sex, sex, sex”. While there are a few scenes of that nature, it was by no means a porno. In fact, I think the sex scenes added another emotional layer to the movie – you get the feeling that Maggie and Jamie truly have an exceptional physical and emotional chemistry.

First date - success?

All in all, it’s a good escapist rom-com. The attractiveness of the lead characters certainly help with marketing this movie. It’s funny, a bit dramatic, set against an interesting backdrop (the invention and boom of Viagra – the miracle little blue pill) and, of course, romantic.

7 out of 10.

~ Hurley Who?