Step 1: Get in bed. Remember the game of reading fortune cookie proclamations out loud and ending them with the phrase “in bed”? Like, “You will have great wealth and prosperity – in bed” or “The sun will always shine on you – in bed.” That’s sort of how I feel Love and Other Drugs ended many scenes – in bed.
Step 2: Get naked. Honestly, I can’t recall seeing this much flesh in a movie that wasn’t a porno – and not just any ordinary, run-of-the-mill flesh, but Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal’s well-respected flesh, who are reunited once again after their brief stint together in Brokeback Mountain. At first, the nakedness is somewhat understandable. Based on Jamie Reidy’s memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, Gyllenhaal plays this hotshot college grad, who hasn’t found what he’s good at yet – except maybe bedding young women. He then lucks into a job as a pharmaceutical rep and begins to excel, eventually getting in on the first wave of the Viagra craze.
Step 3: Get Anne Hathaway naked. Along the way he meets Maggie (Hathaway) who seems like the perfect woman. She’s a free spirit, doesn’t want any attachments, doesn’t want to fall in love but wants sex. Constantly. So, there it is – Maggie and Jamie in various states of undress, going at it in those first throes of physical attraction. In bed – and then in bed again and again and again. Both actors show some guts being so, well, exposed and although it does make sense to the story, you still walk away mostly remembering Hathaway’s breasts, which I’m sure for many isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Step 4: Don’t get Parkinson’s disease. But I’m also pretty sure this isn’t the intention of director Ed Zwick, who is better known for epic dramas such as Legends of the Fall, Glory, and The Last Samurai. He wants us to care for his characters as things start to get more complicated, particularly when we find out Maggie is in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. Of course, this naturally explains her tough, I don’t need anybody attitude, and the reason Jamie falls for her despite the obstacles.
Step 5: Get Jake Gyllenhaal naked. Hathaway excels at being Maggie the free spirit, living her life how she wants to but as soon as she gives into Jamie’s affections and falls for him, too, the performance begins to grate. Something about those big brown eyes getting all weepy and needy just doesn’t suit the actress as well. On the other hand, Gyllenhaal rises to the occasion. He plays the cad with obvious ease and then the caring lover with delicate nuances and tenderness. While Hathaway’s performance seems more forced, Gyllenhaal seems more genuine. Not sure if there’s Oscar potential for the actor, but at least he comes off as totally appealing. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t mind ending every scene with him – in bed.
Step 6: Get Viagra. There are some really hilarious moments in Love and Other Drugs. The drug selling stuff is key, especially showing how these smooth pharmaceutical reps could make a crap load of money pushing Prozac, Zoloft and of course, Viagra. Once the DRAMA takes over, however, the movie simply spirals into a disease of the week, albeit a disease of the week – in bed. OK, I’ll stop now.