MOVIE NIGHT


LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (2010)

It sounds like the title for a rom-com, but Love and Other Drugs is not exactly that - certainly not unless you find Parkinson's Disease funny, and most of us, assuredly, do not. Yet there is plenty of humour infused in this tender and extremely sexy romance/drama starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake's character Jamie Randall is a drug rep for a major pharmaceutical company, a fast-talking ladies man who will bulldoze over anyone to make a buck, and who prides himself on his many sexual conquests. But when he meets the beautiful and self-assured Maggie Murdock, played by Hathaway, he knows he's met his match. He gives his all to make her fall for him but Maggie is in the first stage of Parkinson's and doesn't want to involve anyone in her illness. This all takes place in the 1990s when doctors in the US are handing out samples of anti-depressants like candy. Thus, the drug rep meets the patient in a doctor's office where she's exposing her breast for examination.

Sadly, he doesn't have anything in his bag of tricks that will cure Maggie, and she pulls away from him as her symptoms get worse. And the movie just gets sexier from there as Maggie agrees to a relationship that is mostly just physical. There are so many fairly explicit sex scenes, (plenty of nude shots of both of them in case you're interested), that I began to grow uncomfortable watching it with my mother. Then, of course, when Viagra hits Jamie's sample list, things get really crazy. Sadly, he doesn't have anything in his bag of tricks that will cure Maggie, and she pulls away from him as her symptoms get worse. The plot, though not entirely unpredictable, is satisfying and ultimately realistic.
This is one of the best performances I've seen from Hathaway though I always love her work. I've never seen her play such a sensual character, but, boy, can she do it. At the same time, she is not afraid to be unattractive in this role. The disease pulls Maggie so far down that she cannot fight it, and at that point the make-up, hair and cute clothes all go out the window. She is left at her most raw and vulnerable - amazing to see a popular actress go to such lengths (so much so, that I found myself thinking she should have been nominated for an Academy Award for this role). Gyllenhaal was fine in the film, no argument there, but Hathaway is always the stand-out. Love and Other Drugs is definitely one for your DVD list - just make sure you don't watch it with mom.


Movie reviewed by Georgina Young-Ellis

Back to Movie Night