Love and Other Drugs

The wait is over! The highly anticipated new movie from Jake Gyllenhaal (highly anticipated in my world, at least) came out today and, of course, I rushed to go see it.
 

Jake plays a charming, careless pharmaceutical rep who falls for Anne Hathaway’s character, Maggie, a young victim of Parkinson’s disease. Their initial encounter is quite original: he pretends to be medical intern which granted him full view of Maggie’s breasts during an examination by her doctor. A genius start to a loving relationship. However, the rest of their love story follows the worn-out script of many past romantic movies. All of the familiar elements are there: the resistance to fall in love; her blasé attitude towards intimacy; his relentless pursuit of her; her pushing him away; and, my favorite, the big chase scene in the end where he tries to win her back by professing his unfaltering love all in one fell swoop.
 

Although viewers will root for the two to overcome their relationship challenges and to have Love prevail over all, Jamie’s deep devotion to Maggie comes across as unjustified, and consequently, unconvincing. Besides her being the only woman in his life to ever reject him (and besides the fact that these two actors make a painfully attractive couple), the movie does not offer more grounded reasons for Jamie to choose to be with someone whose illness will undoubtedly lead to a rough road ahead. This is especially missing considering Jamie was a bona fide playboy just a couple scenes back.
 

Regardless of the overly used love story, Love and Other Drugs redeems itself when it came to the other prevailing topics: Big Pharma and health insurance. One of the most notable scenes in the movie is when Maggie’s doctor asks her if she has health insurance, and she shows him a wad of cash instead. Maggie’s mission to bus senior citizens to Canada also adds an obvious commentary to the health insurance issue. And then there’s Jake—my beautiful Jake—who brilliantly displays the ass-kissing world of pharmaceutical sales and reveals the troubling relationship between Big Pharma and medical doctors.
 

Bottom Line: The movie should have been called OTHER DRUGS and Love.