Review: Love & Other Drugs

Were you molested by a Care Bear??!!

This seemingly ludicrous question uttered in disbelief and desperation by Josh Randall in "Love & Other Drugs"perfectly encapsulates the overdose of sentimentality and onscreen mush that pours off the screen in Edward Zwick’s Anne Hathway-Jake Gyllenhaal “love story”. I use quotes when categorizing the film as it doesn’t seem to quite know what it is itself: it starts off as something of a screwball comedy, then morphs into a love story, and finally ends as a melodrama propounding the ability of the human spirit (and Love, capital “L”) to conquer all.

The story of a slick pharmaceutical salesman named Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal) who falls completely for Maggie Murdoch (Hathaway), a woman living with Parkinson’s Disease who does her darndest to keep him at a safe sexual distance develops nicely enough in the beginning, but slowly peters out right when it should be hitting its fever pitch climax (and if you’ve seen the film, you will forgive the double entendre). Much of the required setup to the story doesn’t ring true: what practicing, respectable doctor, for example, would allow a drug rep to pose as an intern? Yes, this is a movie, but when dealing with issues like love, sex and (oh yeah) Parkinson’s Disease, we expect the issues to be treated with some semblance of respect. That doesn’t always happen in Love & Other Drugs.

Which is a shame, considering how affecting and natural the performances are, particularly that of Hathaway who lends her character just the right mix of vulnerability, suffering, and inner steel. You never pity her (she is, as she readily admits, often a unpleasantly bitchy), but we understand her desire to feel independent, to live as an agent in her own life, rather than being defined by Parkinson’s (which Jamie certainly has trouble achieving). In the end, "Love & Other Drugs" will best be remembered for the scene in which those living with Parkinson’s and their family members pronounce in no uncertain terms the toll that the disease has taken on their lives. One husband’s confession that the disease robbed his wife of everything that made her beautiful to him is memorably powerful, especially considering his follow-up confession that, given the choice again, he would never have fallen in love with her in the first place.

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