Just Quickly: Love & Other Drugs
Love & Other Drugs had all the ingredients of a DVD worthy Kimberley friendly rom-com. Or rom-a (romantic drama?) Hmm. Not quite sure that works. Anyway, Jake Gyllenhaal. First guarantee of a drawcard. Anne Hathaway, I certainly love her work, but this was also a sexy, saucy movie that had a thoughtful aspect to it, a thought-provoking sub-plot about a young woman affected by Parkinson’s disease.
I wanted to like it.. but I was annoyed. I think it was too busy. Jake’s character played a pharmaceutical rep; in a very real context, introducing Zoloft, and then Viagra – which brought the movie into a real social context. But then you had him meeting Anne’s character, a sassy young Parkinson’s affected artist. And it became sombre, and thought-provoking and sad… but it might have worked if only Jake and Anne had any semblance of chemistry. They had zilch. I didn’t feel anything or believe that they were drawn to each other in any way.
Add in the weird, lazily written in nerd-brother of Jake who was just cringe-worthy in every scene, particularly in one where he thinks its okay to watch a private adult video of Jake and Anne… and masturbate to it. Uh. All kinds of wrongness. And why?! So, aside from a lovely, obligatory ending to the film; I just didn’t warm to it, I didn’t believe it, and the only highlight would be seeing Jake Gyllenhaal’s behind.
