Creating great on-screen chemistry seems simple enough.
Hire two beautiful actors, whip up a reason for them to come together and, later, separate, and mix in a meaty subplot or wacky supporting player. Even Rosie O’Donnell will do on the latter front.
So why do so many movie romances fizzle?
“Love & Other Drugs,” just released on DVD and Blu-ray, stands as a blissful exception. It’s a sexually charged story of a ’90s-era flim-flam man and the woman who sees straight through that pseudo charm.
It also boasts plenty of unbridled sex, the kind you don’t see in most movies these days.
Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal) could sell lemonade to an Orange Julius clerk. He’s a super-slick pharmaceutical rep pushing Zoloft to doctors already sold on Prozac. Women fall at his feet. Nurses swoon over every phony compliment he sends their way.
That’s one reason why he isn’t prepared to meet a free spirit like Maggie (Hathaway), a 20-something beauty suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. She sees through his sales shtick but beds him all the same, insisting they keep their activities restricted to the boudoir – or wherever the carnal mood strikes. But when the two develop feelings for each other things get more complicated. He’s in denial regarding Maggie’s illness. And she doesn’t think any man deserves to be stuck with a seriously ill woman.
Writer/director Edward Zwick (“Blood Diamond,” “Defiance”) treats the audience like grown ups, and bless his soul for it. We get oodles of raucous sex, serious conversation and romantic complications that don’t feel like outtakes from a Kate Hudson rom-com.
The leads are adorable, human and oh, so relatable. Hathaway’s gifts already earned her an Oscar nomination, but it’s Gyllenhaal who surprises with a mix of masculinity and fear. If Jamie slows down even for a moment he’ll see just how shallow his life really is, and Gyllenhaal never lets viewers forget it.
Based casually on the non-fiction book “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman” by Jamie Reidy, “Love” begins with such an influx of overproduced energy it could power a small city for weeks. Zwick’s comedic touch clearly needs some tinkering, but the story settles down once the main characters meet. Zwick’s missing funny bone reveals itself anew whenever Jamie’s unctuous brother (Josh Gad) appears. And the usually reliable Hank Azaria also disappoints as a doctor caught between greed and giving his patients the best possible care.
“Love” eventually finds Jamie peddling Viagra to a greedy, grateful public, but the story doesn’t stop cold to squeeze in the expected yuks. Zwick treats the pharmaceutical sales games of the era with expected cynicism, but the commentary never derails the main story.
Hathaway and Gyllenhaal simply won’t let it.
“Love & Other Drugs” shines whenever it stops trying to make us laugh and focuses on two flawed people addicted to love.
The Blu-ray extras include extended deleted scenes and a quartet of feature shorts including, “An Actor’s Discussion: The Relationship Between Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway” and “Selling Love & Other Drugs.”
(Photo: Anne Hathaway plays a woman with a chronic illness who falls for a slick pharmaceutical rep – Jake Gyllenhaal – in “Love & Other Drugs.” Fox Home Entertainment)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this. I was going to pass on it (being in the “biz” in the film I didn’t want to see a movie about working…kind of like cops saying they don’t watch “Cops”).
I now am rushing off to the video store to rent this. What was I thinking? This sounds terrific!
I will give it a whirl, even though I personally find Hathaway and Gyllenhaal as exciting as wet paint. I haven’t liked her in a single thing since The Devil Wears Prada, and I’ve never liked him in anything. Maybe they cancel out their boringness when together? Will give it a shot, thanks.