Love and Other Drugs

THIS morning, I opened my inbox and found 91 e-mails. Alongside notices for inclusion in this week’s Mayo News, I had messages about replica watches, penis enlargement, Russian girls and Viagra. Lots about Viagra.

Attempts to sell the impotence pill over the internet are a good deal less sophisticated than those seen in Edward Zwick’s new movie ‘Love and Other Drugs’. Loosely based on Jamie Reidy’s memoir ‘Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman’, it’s an adult romantic-comedy-cum-drama.

The film features great performances from its lead actors. There’s also good chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal (as Jamie, a charmer trying to conquer the pharmaceutical sales game) and Anne Hathaway (as Maggie, a free-spirited artist with early-onset Parkinson’s).

The couple meet when Maggie comes to the clinic of Dr Stan Knight (Hank Azaria), where Jamie is trying to hawk Pfizer products. They don’t exactly hit it off at the beginning, but are soon having copious amounts of sex in unorthodox locations. There’s far more nudity than you get in most mainstream pictures, as those who have seen the trailer may have guessed. One scene where Maggie strips for Jamie in the sitting-room only to find that his brother is sleeping on the couch prompted one cinema-goer watching the preview to drawl “I hate when that happens.”

But this is not your typical boy-meets-girl story. Maggie, loath to get too close to anyone because of her illness, is wary of Jamie’s ‘latent humanity’. She deploys black humour on a regular basis, recalling that she was once tested for syphilis by a doctor trying to find out what was wrong with her – “I was very glad for a negative on that.” Jamie, for his part, is initially happy to ‘keep it simple’ and put up with her casual slandering of his shallowness, but things eventually get more complicated.

Alongside their burgeoning relationship, there are sideswipes at American healthcare. The cosy mutual appreciation society of doctors and drugs company reps is examined, and Maggie takes regular bus trips to Canada to get cheaper treatment for US senior citizens. The couple head for a medical convention in Chicago where Maggie listens to other people outlining their own battles with Parkinson’s. “F*** soup!” one woman yells from the podium before listing a series of everyday items which cause difficulty for those with major tremors.

There’s plenty to enjoy in a smart script. Discussing a rival salesman played by Gabriel Macht, Jamie’s mentor Bruce (Oliver Platt) says: “He’s got toddlers taking Prozac! He’s got dogs taking Prozac!” Jamie’s brother (Josh Gad) becomes increasingly frustrated with his older sibling. “Were you molested by a care bear?” he asks at one point.Also Visit: Vigrx Plus.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the personal drama and satire don’t always blend well. There are good bits and bad bits, and Jamie’s brother doesn’t seem to belong in the film at all. Those expecting a wall-to-wall screwball comedy are likely to be disappointed. It’s far more serious than that, and updates on the sales of that little blue pill seem increasingly distracting. Hathaway is central to the strongest points in the story, and one scene where the husband of a Parkinson’s sufferer tells Jamie what he can expect is particularly powerful.

If there are nods to Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’, Jamie’s final attempt to win back his on-off girlfriend recalls ‘Jerry Maguire’ – although it begins, not with ‘hello’, but with a startling admission: “I’m full of s***”. But though it’s uneven, ‘Love and Other Drugs’ is still well worth checking out – and there’s no prescription required.