Movie Review: 'Love And Other Drugs'

By Simone Hilliard

Love And Other Drugs ... sigh! Let me start off by saying I'm a huge fan of both Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, so when I heard the duo were leaving their rather squeaky clean roles to portray a couple whose casual sexual romps lead to a relationship, I was thrilled.

Image : 20th Century Fox

The film is an edgy romantic comedy where Hathaway and Gyllenhaal get naked, both emotionally and physically. Anne play the role of Maggie Murdock, an artist struggling with Parkinson's disease, while Jake entertains us as Jamie, a slick, promiscuous new drug salesman on the verge of striking it big during the viagra craze.

Neither wants anything deep or long-term, and both seem fine parting after a one-night stand. And then, somehow, they're in a relationship, quickly and clunkily, seemingly so Drugs can proceed to stage two, the bumpy road to love when disease is involved.

This is, Hathaway's movie, and in Gyllenhaal she has a good match. Together they sizzle whether they're spitting and sparring or rolling around naked — and they do a lot of both. It's an intimacy that doesn't feel faked, or gratuitous.

Along the way, we get entertaining side glimpses into the cutthroat world of pharmaceuticals as Jamie partners up with a veteran salesman (Oliver Platt) and tries to woo a key doctor (Hank Azaria) in his territory to prescribe his company's drugs over a competitor's.

Thanks to consistently witty dialogue and multidimensional characters, the film moves along breezily, however, it often veers off track, with scenes of Jamie's bad reaction to viagra, his later threesome, and his brother's presence in the film is as obsolete as they come. That coupled with Love's slow start, brings my rating down from four stars to three.

Overall, it's a satisfying story of two flawed adults navigating a relationship. Not your typical romantic comedy, but also not far from it.

Love And Other Drugs hits theaters nationwide Wednesday (November 24).

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Tags Anne Hathaway, CineMas Cool, Jake Gyllenhaal, Love And Other Drugs, Movies & CineMás