Love and Other Drugs ends where its title begins, with a conundrum. On the surface, and to believe the shrewd ad campaign, it presents itself as a romantic comedy. Simultaneously, however, it never denies that it is dealing with a subject far more complicated and far less jovial. The mystery of the film lies not in its nuance, but in its overt embrace of these two contrasting feelings. Unfortunately, the schism of genres (rom-com and drama) never reaches a point of resolution, entertaining randomly and ending unsatisfactorily.
America is on the verge of its introduction to Viagra, which means pharmaceutical salesman Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) is on the brink of success. The film opens with a fantastic sequence of Jamie working retail in an AV store, selling those wonderful 1990s boom-boxes we were all so hyped up about. A quickie with the manager’s girlfriend in the stock room gets him canned and his doofy brother (Josh Gad) lands him a job at Pfizer. It’s not long before Jamie, shadowing a doctor, meets Parkinson’s patient Maggie Murdoch (Anne Hathaway). She doesn’t want a serious relationship, tragically unwilling to depend on someone else, and he’s a player. However can these sex-and-diseased-crossed lovers work?
Director Edward Zwick generally fascinates his audience with war. His definitive Civil War epic, Glory, not only toted some of the best performances by its young cast (Matthew Broderick and the first Oscar win for Denzel Washington) but brings tears to the eyes time and again with its exquisite precision, thoughtfulness, and deep heart. Since then, Siege has put the war in New York, The Last Samurai traversed the globe to Japan and later Blood Diamond to Africa, and Defiance landed in World War II Russia. As a producer, Zwick is more eclectic: Shakespeare in Love, Traffic, and I Am Sam among the many titles. So where does Love and Other Drugs even begin to fit?
In 1986, Zwick made his feature film debut with a screen version of David Mamet’s About Last Night… A free-living hunk (Rob Lowe) meets a bombshell (Demi Moore) and a relationship builds off of a one-night stand. Perhaps Zwick was revisiting the same concept, but for a new generation of young adults set ten years later, but actually written twenty years later. Hmm. Love and Other Drugs seems to be aiming for more than that.
When the film was released, it gained some notoriety for the amount of nudity its two young Hollywood stars courageously took on, or took off to be exact. In actuality, however, the nudity is hardly gratuitous and pales in comparison to erotic foreign pictures, the likes of The Dreamers or Y Tu Mamá También. The simple truth is that the American audience is Puritan by nature. Violence has long since been adopted as tolerable, while sex is dishearteningly protested. PG-13 means plenty of people can die, but one naked sex act pushes you to R. It seems more likely, therefore, that Zwick was attempting to bring a “European” sensibility to one of cinema’s most conservative shores. Combining the positives of love, romance, and even intimacy unflinchingly portrayed with the equal realities of heartbreak, doubt, and isolation takes on the level of complexity that defines the unparalleled liberation of great foreign films.
The result of all this potential intention and consideration is the lesser American cousin to its more developed foreign relation. The film deals with its two levels ham-fistedly, daring to be overt while sacrificing the joys of subtlety. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a likable character who smiles perhaps too much, when a tear would cut to the core. Anne Hathaway continues to be on a roller-coaster in the wrong direction. After starting with family fare she’s too desperate to be taken seriously. Adult roles here and in Havoc, Brokeback Mountain, and Rachel Getting Married seem to suggest she thinks taking her clothes off will close The Princess Diaries for good. Best to remember the luminous Julie Andrews, who shocked with her topless scene in S.O.B., making the jump to adult fare, but did so with the sophisticated direction of her husband, the great Blake Edwards. Quality will always outstrip quantity.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The features play up the cast, specifically the principals. Obviously, the film was shooting for critical acclaim with its two body-barring brave leads. Jake and Anne both get their own featurette, but no amount of “character research” they discuss fills the hole left where a stronger movie could have been. That said, college-buddies Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria continue to deliver in their supporting roles. They’re horrendously underused, but as always superb.
"Love and Other Drugs" is on sale March 1, 2011 and is rated R. Romantic-Comedy. Directed by Edward Zwick. Written by Charles Randolph, Marshall Herskowitz, and Edward Zwick. Starring Anne Hathaway, Hank Azaria, Jake Gyllenhaal, Oliver Platt.
