Love & Other Drugs Review

I went to see the new Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway movie called Love & Other Drugs today. It was quite the impromptu screening as I had planned on grading papers all day. Given that I am a total sucker for movie invites, I jumped at the chance when a friend invited me. So here's my lowdown of the movie.


First off, it's a bit long. They spend a loooooong time on the buildup of their relationship. It's clear from the previews that Jake plays a drug sales rep who is what you would call a player. He pretends to be an intern during Anne's doctor's visit. She finds out he's not an intern, gets mad at him, he charms the pants off of her (literally), and they hook up. I also think it's clear from the preview that she is sick (so hopefully I am not giving anything away here). I am not sure why they decide to spend so much time trying to convince us that he sleeps around and she keeps everyone at arm's length, we got that pretty quickly. 


It does follow a predictable path (see A Love Story or A Walk to Remember if you need a memory boost): Boy can't love one woman, boy suddenly falls in love with girl who doesn't want him, sick girl falls in love with said boy, big dramatic ending where we don't get to see "happily ever after". So the story line has been done, though this movie offers plenty of shots of naked Jake and naked Anne (loads of Anne breast if you are into that sort of thing)! There are some very funny scenes, though they were all noticeably given to the men, still funny though. Watch for Jake getting punched in the stomach and for any scene with his brother or his boss. 


The casting was great. Jake and Anne can clearly act, so I applaud them both on that (see Brothers or Rachel Getting Married if you want further proof). Also, being so, uselessly, in tune with who's screwing who in Hollywood these days, it was nice to see a pair of actors on screen who didn't hook up in real life, but had really good chemistry in the movie. I think those two would make an overly adorable couple in real life, but that could just be their awesome acting. :-) Jake's brother, played by Josh Gad, and Oliver Platt provide the comic relief (the scene where Oliver just keeps repeating pussy was *awesome*). Hank Azaria managed *not* to be the comic relief, which personally I found to be a nice change (though I do think he is funny). Gabriel Macht should come with some sort of warning label: Do not look directly at this person for you may go blind from their utter gorgeousness. 


This movie was set in 1997. As my friend pointed out, some of the music doesn't match the year, but I think they may have been trying to push the decade rather than the year. Still fun to see the old phones, you know, the ones that didn't have access to the internet or text messaging, etc. 


So, in sum, movie took too long to build up, story line was blah, casting was great, and there is lots of nakedness from the two main characters. My recommendation is to watch it, though you don't necessarily need to run right out to do so.