‘Love’ a heady drug in Gyllenhaal-Hathaway film
”
Love and Other Drugs
”
is the most successful romantic comedy I’ve seen this year, but
the screenwriters and director skirt more into the territory of
drama than comedy as the characters and storyline start to be
established.
The movie is based on a book by Jamie Reidy called
”
Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.
”
It was adapted for the screen by Charles Randolph, Edward Zwick
(who also directed) and Marshall Herskovitz, the latter two who
have a long history of working on such films as
”
The Last Samurai,
”
”
I Am Sam
”
and other dramatic fare.
‘Love’ a heady drug in Gyllenhaal-Hathaway film
“Love and Other Drugs” is the most successful romantic comedy I’ve seen this year, but the screenwriters and director skirt more into the territory of drama than comedy as the characters and storyline start to be established.
The movie is based on a book by Jamie Reidy called “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.” It was adapted for the screen by Charles Randolph, Edward Zwick (who also directed) and Marshall Herskovitz, the latter two who have a long history of working on such films as “The Last Samurai,” “I Am Sam” and other dramatic fare.
The movie is set in 1996, established by a title on the screen, as well as the songs blared early on as Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) works to sell high-end electronics. Anyone who went to high school that year will immediately recognize the Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes” and The Breeders “CannonBall.” Jamie has all the qualities it takes to be a good salesman – he’s handsome, he’s charming and he’s a good liar. He gives his customers what they want to get them to buy expensive stereos.
But Jamie’s job as an electronics salesman is short lived when he is caught sleeping with the girlfriend of the boss on the job. Jamie is the underachiever of the family. His father and sister are doctors. His brother is a computer whiz who made a fortune in his mid-20s by creating medical software. Jamie’s only talent seems to be bedding women and he does a lot of it in the first part of the movie.
His brother Josh (Josh Gad) offers a solution to his unemployment by suggesting he get into the medical business as a pharmaceutical salesman. It’s an entry-level job that allows a person to earn up to $100,000 with commission. Jamie is all about the money when he first signs up with Pfizer and is assigned to the Ohio River valley.
His main drug to push is Zoloft, a drug for depression that is supposed to have fewer side effects than Prozac. Jamie, who is not as dumb as he pretends to be, memorizes all the clinical trial stats and can quote the benefits of his drug over other anti-depressants at a moment’s notice. The early part of the movie is focused on his attempts to woo doctors into taking their patients off Prozac and putting them on Zoloft. It exposes the way that pharmaceutical companies use their might to push their drugs – coffee mugs, pens, umbrellas and at the far end of the spectrum they host “conventions” in exotic places to persuade doctors to write scripts.
Jamie’s main target is Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria,) a general practitioner who is well respected in his circle of doctors. Jamie’s been told if Knight switches to Zoloft other doctors will follow. Jamie gets an in with him when he offers the doctor $1,000 to allow Jamie to “shadow” him as part of a Pfizer program to enhance salesmen’s understanding of medicine.
While following Dr. Knight on his rounds, Jamie sits in on a consultation with Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway,) a 26-year-old with early on-set Parkinson’s disease. The role is a far cry from Hathaway’s first big screen role in “The Princess Diaries.” She reveals her breasts in her first scene on screen as part of her examination, and it is the first of much nudity to come in the movie (which earned it an R rating.)
Maggie is angry when she realizes Jamie is not an intern as he said, but a drug salesman. She attacks him in the parking lot and then walks away. Instead of walking away, too, Jamie becomes a little obsessed with Maggie. His brother points out that he might just want her because she is the only girl who has ever rejected him.
Jamie persuades Maggie to have coffee with him, and at first, she seems like the perfect girl for him. She wants a no-strings attached fling with him. She doesn’t want to date him. She doesn’t want a relationship. She tells him upfront she just wants a physical relationship with him. She pages him up and he shows up to perform. But the minute Jamie hints at wanting something more – even if it’s just showing up unannounced at Maggie’s apartment with Chinese take-out – Maggie pulls away.
Maggie’s reason for fearing intimacy is easy to detect – she has Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease that causes her to have tremors on her good days and inhibits her ability to hold a glass on a bad day. She doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone and so she cuts off any hope of love before it comes her way. Jamie’s reason for avoiding intimacy takes a lot longer to reveal itself.
The movie, and the characters, has its emotional ups and downs. The only reason it works is that Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have an easy chemistry together, perhaps because they worked together on another emotional rollercoaster of a movie, “Brokeback Mountain.” Josh Gad offers some comic relief as Jamie’s brother, but the movie is much more of a drama than a comedy in the end.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com. She writes a blog at http://melissa-movielines.blogspot.com.
