Review of Love & Other Drugs (2010) by Jilie L — 25 Mar 2013

For the Golden Globe-nominated performances (by Jake Gyllenhaal & Anne Hathaway) I give this movie a better rating than I should. Gyllenhaal plays his character Jamie, a pharmaceutical rep, with spunk, energy, and real charisma. I enjoyed his performance a lot. Even better was Anne Hathaway as Maggie, a young lady suffering from early on-set Parkinson's disease. I, also am about Hathaway's age & I was diagnosed with P. D. several months ago, so I can tell you that her portrayal was very researched & played extremely well. It's a difficult disease to live with and her character has chosen to push people away and not allow love to enter her life ever again.

Things change a little when she meets Gyllenhaal's character. At first they decide they are only friends for sex (yes, this is a very sexual, very adult-oriented movie). But as time moves on they find themselves getting closer & this scares her very much. They have an amazing chemistry & work very well together. That's what I admired most about the film.

The movie's biggest problem is how uneven it is. It jumps from one storyline to another too quickly. We go from funny to depressing without a moment's warning. There are plots and characters that are absolutely unnecessary to the movie at all. For instance, Gylenhaal's character has a brother who lives with him and they try to give him a story that in turn distracts the audience from the true plot of the real film. He is only there for silly comic relief, and comes off as annoying, not funny at all.

In the end I admired the movie, because it shows us at least two fragile, broken, & honest characters (Gyllenhall & Hathaway), who learn to build each other up by knocking down walls. I liked how they showed Hathaway deal with her disease with humor (mostly). Maybe because I too suffer from Parkinson's disease, I found it depressing at times. The portrayals of people when she goes to support groups were all too real for me. But ultimately it's a heart-felt, uplifting story. Uneven, but nicely acted & some great moments make up for the bad ones.