Love & Other Drugs Review

By: Robert Acosta

Cast:
Jake Gyllenhall as Jamie Randall
Anne Hathaway as Maggie Murdock
Hank Azaria as Dr. Knight
Josh Gad as Josh Reidy

Plot: A medication salesman, Jamie, finds himself under the spell of love when he unexpectedly falls for Maggie Murdock.

Review: Love & Other Drugs is a movie I may have ended up paying for in theaters, as much as I thought it would be a chick flick and one of those horrible romantic comedies. Luckily, it was still a rom-com but an actual good one and I did not end up paying for it.

It starts you out by introducing Gyllenhall in his normal habitat. A player. Working in a electronic store, macking on all the female employees and female customers. He ends up being fired from that place after he works too hard on working with one of the female employees. Get my drift?

He's jobless while his brother is becoming successful and, of course, becoming a prick. Gyllenhall's character, Jamie, ends up attending tons of Pfizer conventions and hopes he will be able to sell medication to doctors and hospitals, just so he can make ends meet. Slowly but surely, he works his way up and along the way, BOOM, meets the love interest Maggie Murdock.

What's so great about the movie is that it definitely has the feel of some of the older and better romantic comedies of the past. Movies like When Harry Met Sally and Pretty Woman both came to mind while watching Love & Other Drugs. Obviously in romantic comedies, you have to have an element of both those genres and both are really there. The romance is shown in bunches, but doesn't overpower the comedic parts. The comedy is there, not too light, not too strong but just right. Your stomach won't hurt of laughter but you'll be satisfied.

On to the individual performances. This should definitely go down as one of Jake Gyllenhall's better performances. Up there with Brokeback Mountain and maybe Jarhead. He looks very natural in the role of man whore, so to say, and then really turns out to be a closet romantic at heart. Anne Hathway gives you the cynical side of everything. Does it get slightly annoying? Yes. But is it understandable after everything you get to know about her? Very much so. Hathaway's character starts out being the exact opposite of Gyllenhall but by movies end, they're very much the same. Damn closet romantics.

Overall, Love & Other Drugs is one of the better movies of the year. When it hits theaters in just two weeks, I hope and expect it to be received positively. It's one of the very few romantic comedies that actually works.

Rating: 5 out of 5