Love And Other Drugs skates very close to the rim of mawkishness. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a talented drug representative. While pretending to be an intern, Gyllenhaal witnesses a breast exam of a patient with Stage One Parkinson’s disease (played by Anne Hathaway). Of course, he falls in love. But Love And Other Drugs has pretensions to be more than just another predictable romantic comedy. Gyllenhaal has to make a Decision. The much more talented Oliver Platt is on hand to mentor Gyllenhaal on the sales techniques of moving prescription drugs. Josh Gad is funny as Gyllenhaal’s geeky younger brother. George Segal and Jill Clayburgh (in probably her last movie role) are Gyllenhaal’s parents. Love And Other Drugs has a fine cast and aspirations of Higher Things. The group we went with found the serious side of the movie troubling. They wanted to laugh, but they had to contend with a movie that made them think. GRADE: B
Really ambivalent about seeing this one. I don’t care about laughing, but I don’t want to cry and I don’t want to be manipulated. Whadya think?
Ann Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal’s performances are worth seeing, Patti. I had low expectations for this movie and it exceeded them.
I’m waiting for HBO, Patti. The critics here said the problem is that Hathaway’s character is more a collection of traits than a real person and only her acting keeps it going.
That’s a fair assessment, Jeff. Without Hathaway, this wouldn’t be much of a film.
What’s going on with Jake? Didn’t we once think he was a terrific actor? I’m thinking of Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko and Zodiac.
I thought Jake Gyllenhaal was solid in LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS, Patti. He probably needs to skip the offers to do more romantic comedies and try his hand at some serious dramas.
Strangely enough, there is a long discussion of his career in New York Magazine today. They really agreed he has to stop doing action flicks like Prince of Persia where he had no credibility. He needs to do serious drama, yes. Like Zodiac.
I skipped PRINCE OF PERSIA which underperformed last summer, Patti. Gyllenhaal should do some indy movies if he wants credibility.
“Techniques of moving prescription drugs”? How about just taking out 10,000 ads on television and making “ask your doctor” a mantra for Americans. Sheesh. As for the film, it sounds awful.
Yes, LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS has been criticized as a long commercial for mood-altering and sexual performance-enhancing drugs, Rick.
As everyone who dares hear or read my utterances knows, I’m a big fan of Edward Zwick’s television work, at least post THIRTYSOMETHING, and there would be little that will dissuade me from seeing a film like this from him…JG’s certainly not a bad actor, and I think Hathaway’s proving that she can augment relatively skimpy character development in nearly all of her projects I’ve seen (that she reminds me of Zwick collaborator Sela Ward doesn’t upset me at all, mind you).
This weekend will be likely devoted to cat-wrangling and seeing this and BLACK SWAN.
BLACK SWAN looks too dark for me, Todd. I love Natalie Portman, but some of the scenes in the trailer where they show her cutting and mutilating herself creeped me out.
They wanted to laugh, but had to contend with a movie that made them think.
My pity for your companions is so vanishingly limited…
Some people only want to be entertained, Todd, not enlightened. The group we went out with wanted to see “fluff” and were disappointed by the movie’s substance.