It’s 1996 and Viagra is yet to be discovered. And amidst and world of women and pharmaceutical sales, Jamie (Jake Gylllehaal) has yet to discover his soulmate, either. But, Josh (Oliver Platt) is helping Jaime to learn the ropes. And let’s face it… selling meds to doctors is the only entry level position that allows you to make upwards of 100G. The job….Pfizer. The drug…Zoloft. And apparently the health care industry makes more than all Fortune 500 companies combined. Jamie is good at his game but he’s not good at his job. FYI He’s very Cruise-esque in his very show-me-the-money performance. Hank Azaria plays the doctor that Jamie’s trying to win over…from Prozac to Zoloft that is, though it’s hard to care about the doctor’s practice when he’s ethically bad-boying it (and in bars hitting on women.) Enter Maggie (Anne Hathaway) who has Parkinson’s disease thus paralleling Jamie’s universe of morals, decency and good salesmanship. The story feels a bit a bit like the TV show “Californication” coupled with any one of the generic man-child comedies, especially with the unnecessary whining and overweight brother(Josh Gad) sleeping on his couch. That said, in some ways the sexual banter and plot of a pretty/sassy girl with illness meets medical/sexy salesman is refreshing and raw (especially when they’re naked.) But when the porn and nonsense mix in with a serious illness, it’s hard to have fun anymore. The story goes from naughty nights to suddenly very serious without us being warned to jump ship from one emotion to another. And that’s when it feels like two separate films glued together. (The second one beginning past the hour and a half mark.) The one message we seem to take away from this film is that we live in a world where everybody medicates their feelings instead of actually feeling them. Hathaway and Gylenhaal have a broader chemistry than they did on Brokeback Mountain but in the end, it’s all still a bitter little pill to swallow. Just say “no” to Love & Other Drugs. One and a half tiaras
