Contents: Hard hitting drama.
Like leap years and the Olympics, decent romantic comedies come about every four years.
A couple years ago I watched Crazy, Stupid Love and while it wasn’t the egregious time waster I dreaded, it also wasn’t the film to convert me into someone who puts a smiley face or wink emoticon at the end of every email or sms.
I didn’t want to watch Love and Other Drugs, but the odds of convincing my wife to give Evil Dead 2013 were slimmer than Angelina Jolie’s arms, and in desperation I turned to Jake Gylenhaal to keep the marriage alive.
In Love and other Drugs he plays Jamie, the charismatic and confident ladies’ man that never saw a skirt not worth chasing. When a totally implausible – and probably – illegal coincidence allows him to glimpse Maggie’s (Anne Hathaway) bare boobie in a doctor’s office, Jamie does all in his power to try to convince her to expose the sweater puppie again, this time in a non-professional capacity.
For her part Maggie doesn’t take too much convincing, and the two set to a frenetic binge of emotionless rutting, often triggered by little more than a brief ‘come hither’ phone call.
All above board and yes a little sexy so far, and the film does eventually get to exactly where you think it will. But L&OD takes a different and more difficult route to arrive at its destination. A darker and often sadder route indeed.
This is because our structurally flawless love birds are both psychologically flawful.
Pharmaceutical rep Jamie is opportunistic and willing to do whatever – or whoever – it takes to make a sale, and is used to having things fall his way. Maggie on the other hand, has more genuine issues, having been diagnosed as having the degenerative Parkinson’s disease at the tender age of 26.
While the relationship begins as one of convenience, the aesthetically pleasing F-buddies must face the conundrums that come with the possibility of falling into something deeper than lust.
Gylenhaal and Hathaway throw themselves into their roles to ensure that the film is far deeper and multi-faceted than the myriad of boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fall apart and then get back together films. You know, every Tom Cruise movie. Hathaway in particular has her shirt off more than a pro wrestler and gives more troubled looks than an entire season of Oprah. Her Maggie obviously believes that the best defence is a good offence (and a nice set of cans), so she is forever telling Jamie what he is thinking; ‘you’re thinking, oh now she’s crazy’… ‘you’re thinking, what’s the quickest way to get out of here’. As a guy that gets old fast, to the point that I wish Jamie retorted with ‘you’re thinking, gee how annoying is this entire ‘you’re thinking’ bullshit’…
Annoying traits from beautiful people aside, Love and Other Drugs adds to the usual romantic journey by including surprising stopovers and detours in Dramaville and Depressingland. While this might not make it the ideal date movie it is a better rounded film for it. Certainly better than No Strings Attached and co… I assume. I’ve watched one Timberlake film, that’s enough for this millennium.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. The allure of celeb nudity might bring the punters in, but the dramatic elements prove the film’s real assets… oh and I guess Hathaway’s goodies don’t hurt.
