By Lisa DiCarluci
“Love and Other Drugs,” a film which seems to exist solely to showcase the delightful chemistry of Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, is an indie drama masquerading as a mass market rom-com.
The film, directed by Edward Zwick, from a screenplay by Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Charles Randolph, follows the same plot contrivances as any romantic comedy: Jamie, the callous leading man with a penchant for beautiful women finds true love in Maggie, a sexy, bohemian artist. But here’s the indie award-bait kicker: she’s in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease
Jamie is a pharmaceutical salesman, but this is yet another plot contrivance, mattering solely to set the two up. Jamie, posing as a intern with a doctor played by Hank Azaria, views her naked breast as part of a medical check-up. The film is based loosely on Jamie Reidy’s book “Hard Sell: The Life of a Viagra Salesman,” yet it has very little to do with pharmaceutical sales, and he doesn’t start selling Viagra until nearly the end. This is no “Up in the Air,” which was both a commentary on modern business and a romance.
Hathaway will no-doubt garner another Oscar nomination, though she’s done much better work in films like “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Rachel Getting Married.” Gyllenhaal is affable as ever, though not nearly sleazy enough. Azaria is wasted; so too is Oliver Platt, as Jamie’s salesman colleague. Josh Gad plays Gyllenhaal’s obnoxious internet millionaire brother who seems to come from and act in another movie entirely.
Zwick and his co-writers have no idea what kind of a film they’re making. It seems like they wanted to create the next “Up in the Air,” but the studio heads told them they didn’t want another one of those. So, no matter how many close-ups there are of Maggie’s quivering hand as she tries to operate a pair of scissors or zip her coat or open a pill bottle or pour a glass of vodka or drop said glass, true love prevails, illness be damned.