New Release: Love and Other Drugs

While I saw this movie because it was Jake Gyllenhaal week at Reel Insight, I have been excited about this movie since I saw it was coming out.  You can hear my other most anticipated movies on Episode 38 of the Lambcast from September.  And thankfully, I wasn't disappointed, it was as good as I expected it to be - and much sexier.  A movie deserving its R rating is a welcome distraction from relatively innocuous rom coms dramas of late (I'm looking at you, Eat, Pray, Love, The Bounty Hunter, and Killers).  

Love & Other Drugs stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Jamie Randall and Anne Hathaway as Maggie Murdoch in the late 1990s.  Jamie is the screw-up of his over-achieving family - his younger brother Josh just sold a company for millions (played by Josh Gad - in a role that showed me Jonah Hill better watch his back as I liked Gad MUCH better than any role Hill's done in a while).  He gets a job in pharmaceutical sales just before Viagra is released during the time Prozac is being challenged by Zoloft.  Side note - I found it weird they didn't feel the need to explain what any of these drugs were because everyone already knew them, it seemed to be a small commentary on the fact that the commercialization of drugs directly to consumers is a massive change that people have somewhat overlooked.  Anyway, Jamie cons his way into a doctor's office and meets Maggie, a young woman looking for a refill on her Parkinson's drugs. 

Yes, she's a 27-year-old Parkinson's patient - and while the rest of the movie does deal with the complications of dating someone who will be sick the entire time you know them, and the fact that someone's illness does not define them any more than their hair color or height, the movie is actually about Jamie figuring out that he's a good person and doesn't really know what love is.  He was given a particularly privileged upbringing, but rebelled against it for a long time and never really knew how to love someone - have sex with them, but not stick around.  So it's a cheesy romantic comedy at it's heart, with a thoughtful background question that must be dealt with.  And man, is it sexy.  Yes, they have sex a lot, but it's also sexy in the way its filmed - long smiles and suggestive close-ups.  It's also funny, without using dirty humor - Jamie having one of the side effects of Viagra, and shlubby Josh getting caught watching a sex tape.  Overall, funny and touching without being too schlocky or cliched.  4 of 5 stars/lambs