Love and Other Drugs

The pace, music and editing of the first scene of Love and Other Drugs, are excellent. It opens in 1996 with Jake Gyllenhaal as an electronics store salesmen, set to the sweet sound of the Spin Doctors. The energy and sly charm of Gyllenhaal's character, Jamie Randall, continue throughout much of the movie. He's a smooth operator and its not the least bit offensive. Its completely cute and funny.

Now as a pharmaceutical rep, Jamie soon crosses paths with Anne Hathaway's free-spirited artist, Maggie Murdock. They are two of a kind and fall right into bed. As the buzz for the movie promises, there's lots of skin and sex scenes. Maggie's character faces a challenge in her life that much of the second half of the film and the conflict of the movie revolve around. I did not know it before seeing the movie, and though most reviews probably mention it, I won't. I like that I didn't know everything about the movie before seeing it.

Over all, its a fun picture, and I enjoyed the trip back to the 90s and the exposure of the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies. The only silver bullet, is the "grand gesture" scene that frequents many rom-coms. It is based on a real story, the screenplay is adapted from the book Hard Sell by the real Jamie. And it wasn't cheesy, my main element to determine a good or bad rom-com.

I'll be seeing Black Swan Friday and The Tourist on Sunday...plus, you never know when there is more Oscar news this time of year.