"Adds up to very little that's cohesive."
There are certain enjoyable aspects of Love and Other Drugs. Anne Hathaway, for instance. She's a young actor on the rise, and we could well find ourselves pointing to this role as evidence of her continued maturation. The themes presented are initially compelling too, be it pharmaceutical sales or Parkinson's, we haven't seen many films constructed in this manner. But tonally? It's not great. By which I mean it's not good. So there's that.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a drug rep for Pfizer, and he meets Anne Hathaway through a bit of chicanery. He job shadows a doctor who tells him to just pretend he's an intern. Hathaway has many physical ailments, so she heads into see a doctor, and during the course of her examination Gyllenhaal sneaks a peek at her, topless. When Hathaway realizes, a few minutes later, that Gyllenhaal is just a smarmy salesman she's rightfully less than pleased. That's your meet-cute, and it's the foundation of Love and Other Drugs. From there on out the couple will be subjected to trials, occasional tribulations, and most of it will add up to very little that's cohesive.
The issues with the film start with the scattered approach. Is this a ringing indictment of Big Pharma? Is it an insightful look into what it's like to be young, single, sick, and afraid of attachment? It's a little of both, and of course it is effectively neither, because the track of the film shifts every five minutes. We're left with a very wishy-washy story, as if director Edward Zwick knew in his heart he wanted to execute a modern romantic comedy, but lacked the resources to do so.
Love and Other Drugs is also a film that relies on montages for nearly every moment of exposition. The two are in love? Montage. The couple can't make it work? Montage. Hathaway's disease leaving her feeling fatigued and vulnerable? Montage me, and lay on the sappy lyrics if you please. This is no way to run a drama or a comedy, and Love and Other Drugs suffers mightily for the transgression. This is a film bathed in music, but not meaningful dialogue, and all the acoustic cheese in the world can't save it from the pointed lack of contribution from the script.
That said, the elements were in place for Love and Other Drugs to be a solid film. The rise of Viagra seems perfect for a "tale of excess" tale in the vein of Wall Street. Likewise, Parkinson's disease is a worthy subject, and Hathaway was just the actress to cast, as she's got excellent emotional range. Edward Zwick has directed great films, amazing films, his skill made evident over the past two decades. Jake Gyllenhaal is drawn to difficult acting assignments, and his ability to make characters both sympathetic and scorn-worthy in the same scene should have been an asset. But things never really come together, we never really understand where the characters are coming from, and it's never clear if this is a film that's anti-drug or just pro-montage. Love and Other Drugs isn't a story about love or drugs, which is kind of shame, given those were clearly two great starting points.
Grade: C
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