Love and Other Drugs

Every once in a while, you come across a love story that is not really a love story but kind of gets the message across much better than most mushy ones do. Its an art mastered by very few or just plain luck that you arrive at your moment of truth in an unplanned manner. Now with Edward Zwick, its not the latter but just sheer class. Now the list of movies that Mr. Zwick has give us will prove that point – Glory (got Denzel his first Oscar), Legends of the Fall (if you haven’t seen this one you must must), Courage under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai and last but not the least – Blood Diamond. With all of these under his belt, I guess Eddie boy had only one more genre of movies to play with – Romance. Now, Edward would probably argue with me when he says that there is a fair amount of comedy involved in Love and Other Drugs and I would have to agree with him on that count. However, it is not your average run of the mill comedy. There is a lot of class in the humour and at the end of the day, the story is one which would appeal to your heart more than your sense of humour.


Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhall) can be described in only two words – Smooth Operator. One could probably make it three words by adding the prefix – Extra. He is a man who can sell ice to an Eskimo and the concept of himself to a woman better than the best can. A total ladies man, he is a sale guy at a local electronic store who gets thrown out – thanks to screwing with the owners girlfriend. As his younger brother Josh (Josh Gad) says, “If you were given money for fucking, you would be a billionaire by now” – now wouldn’t most of us like to be like Jamie???? I meant the billionaire aspect – obviously ;)

Now Jamie, is without a job and Josh decides to help out by introducing him to a friend in the pharmaceutical business. Much against his wishes to be a medical rep, Jamie agrees – may as well do something he says. So he goes ahead and joins Pfizer. Gets inducted in Chicago and sent back to where he came from – into upcountry United States. He gets tagged to Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt) – med rep par excellence. Bruce is married with 2 kids who live in Chicago along with his wife. Bruce knows that he is onto a gold mine with Jamie and does his best to paint a picture about how the ultimate goal for the med rep should be to get to Chicago coz that’s where the big bucks are. And to get to Chicago, he needs to break Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria) who doesn’t believe in Pfizer thanks to the exceptionally “good work” put in by Terry Hannigan (Gabriel Macht). So off goes our hero, using his charming ways with every single receptionist in his way and makes it within striking distance of Dr. Knight. And as things are going from horrid to great, in waltzes Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a twenty something free spirited woman suffering from 1st stage of Parkinson’s disease.

The entire concept of the movie is probably encapsulated by the last line – Every once in a while, you meet someone who changes your life for ever. Sounds corny but I must admit, that it is true and that I am not sure that these were the lines verbatim ;P. Love and Other Drugs is worth spending nearly 2 hours on, not just due to the fabulous direction of Edward Zwick but also because of a truly superb performance by Anne Hathaway as a young woman who is degenerating with Parkinsons. And I don’t say this only because she is naked most of the time but because The Princess Diary star has added to the list of chick flick actors / actresses who really can act. The movie gets up close and personal with the disease and the travails that one goes through thanks to the disease which somehow doesn’t have a cure. So much for all the progress that we have made. Superb effort by the entire cast and loads of naked bodies (don’t think any of it will be shown back home but that’s the advantage of watching movie down under :D) make Love and Other Drugs a must watch. Anne Hathaway for a nomination at the Oscars is my call. 7 on 10 for the movie.