Josh Reviews Love & Other Drugs
When we first meet Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Jamie Randall at the start of Edward Zwick’s new film Love & Other Drugs, we learn immediately that Jamie is a fast-talking salesman who seems to be able to convince anyone to buy anything, and also that he is quite a ladies man who is not above having sex with a woman he knows to be involved with someone else. In this case, the “someone else” happens to be his boss, which results, no surprise, in Jamie’s quick exit from that job. His brother, though, is able to help him land a job selling drugs for Pfizer. Since this film is set in 1996, it’s not a tremendous surprise that this fast-talking salesman soon finds himself involved in selling a certain call-your-doctor-if-your-erection-lasts-more-than-four-hours love drug. While all that is happening, Jamie gets involved with Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a vivacious, free-spirited young woman who, for reasons that become clear later in the film, is reluctant to let their sexual encounters deepen into anything more meaningful.
Quite a lot has been made of all of the nudity in this film, and with good reason. We certainly get to see quite a lot of the skin of both of the two good-looking leads. Ms. Hathaway, in particular, spends an enormous amount of screen-time in the nude. Note to filmmakers: there’s no better way to get a guy interested in your romantic comedy than by including copious amounts of Anne Hathaway nudity.
And make no mistake, Love & Other Drugs is a romantic comedy. I get the sense that the filmmakers had something a little more serious on their minds with this film, what with the third-act shift into dramatic territory as Maggie and Jamie struggle with the implications that her illness has on her future, and on the possibility of their building a life together. But despite that, the film follows the standard romantic comedy tropes. The couple meets cute, sparks fly, there’s an obstacle that causes them to separate, and then they’re reunited in the end, happily ever after.
There’s a lot that I enjoyed about Love & Other Drugs. (BESIDES the Anne Hathaway nudity!!) Both Mr. Gyllenhaal and Ms. Hathaway are dynamic, charismatic leads. I think they have a strong chemisty on screen together, and I enjoyed watching them interact. The first half of the film has a fun, jaunty tone with a lot of humor. And I respect the filmmakers for trying to introduce some narrative ideas of more depth into the film’s second half. But ultimately, I was disappointed to find that the film was unable to break out of the boringly familiar romantic comedy formula.
And, also, in the end the film leans on some stunningly obvious jokes. While the first half of the film contained a lot of humor that felt felt natural and worked well, I found myself groaning at the sequence, late in the film, in which Jamie suffers from the above-mentioned possible Viagra side-effect. It’s as if the filmmakers said: well, we’re doing a movie about Viagra, so we’ve just GOT to include a scene where a character has an erection that won’t go away!! Sigh. So obvious, so predictable, and just not that funny.
I will note, though, that — in addition to Mr. Gyllenhaal and Ms. Hathaway — Love & Other Drugs boasts some fine performances by several other comedic actors. It’s always great to see Judy Greer (so wonderful as Kitty on Arrested Development) on screen, though she has a fairly small role here. Oliver Platt kills as Bruce, the senior salesman to whom Jamie is assigned. Hank Azaria (the voice of so many memorable characters on The Simpsons) is also terrific as Dr. Stan Knight, a doctor who Jamie is trying to get to prescribe more Pfizer products, and in whose office he first meets Maggie. This is mostly a serious role for Mr. Azaria, though he plays the character with enough of a twinkle in his eye that Stan becomes a fun, interesting figure in the film. (And Mr. Azaria’s dramatic chops are strong enough that he’s able to really sell a quiet scene, late in the movie, which brings a lot of humanity to the character.)
But the biggest stand-out of the film, for me, was Josh Gad as Jamie’s brother Randall. As Jamie’s blunt, say-whatever-he-thinks younger brother, Mr. Gad gets most of the best lines in the film, and his manic energy brings the movie to life whenever he’s on screen. Mr. Gad looks and feels a lot like a High Fidelity-era Jack Black. The role feels like it was written for that younger, live-wire Jack Black (as opposed to the Jack Black soon to be appearing in the cartoonish-looking Gulliver’s Travels), or maybe that’s just how Mr. Gad is choosing to play the role. Or maybe I’m being biased by his physical appearance, which quite resembles Mr. Black’s. Either way, while this is far from an original character type, Mr. Gad has a lot of fun in the role and is a blast to watch.
I qualified my review of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by noting that I understood that I wasn’t the target audience of that film. The same is the case here, I think. I’m just not a fellow who really digs romantic comedies. (Which is not to say that I can’t enjoy films that are both romantic and comedic. After all, When Harry Met Sally is one of my five favorite films of all time.) So feel free to take this review with however many grains of salt you’d like. I enjoyed Love & Other Drugs and found it to be a perfectly pleasant, diverting film. But I don’t think it’s a movie of any great consequence, and I doubt it’s one I’ll be revisiting any time soon.