The 2010’s Love & and Other Drugs trailer makes it seem like the movie is a romantic comedy. In actuality, that could not be further from the truth. While there is quite a bit of romance and lots and lots of humor, the movie is far more profound and dramatic than I could have imagined. No purely romantic comedy can take you through the range of emotions that Love & Other Drugs will take you through. This movie slipped under the radar, earning just $32 million at the box office. Referred to more as “that movie that has Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brothers) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married, Interstellar) naked the whole time,” it was more than it was anything else. I saw the movie for two reasons. The first was that I was intrigued by the buzz surrounding this movie’s release date.

The other was that I’d become a big fan of Anne Hathaway. There are few actors/actresses that when you see them on the screen, you see them as the character rather than the actor/actress trying to portray that character. Daniel Day-Lewis is the first actor I think of when describing this idea to someone. Others that come to mind include Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, and Christina Ricci. And while Anne Hathaway is no Daniel Day-Lewis or Meryl Streep, she is slowly but surely putting herself on that path.

Set in and around the Cleveland area in the mid-1990s, Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, a pharmaceutical salesman for Pfizer. The first ten minutes of the portray Jamie as a smooth-talking salesman for an electronics store. He uses his wit, charm, and good looks to persuade women of all ages to purchase anything from phones to televisions to stereos. His playboy reputation is established within the first few moments of the movie. Fast forward a bit, and we find Jamie, a pharmaceutical representative, trying to make a name for himself. His on-the-job training is provided by partner Bruce (Oliver Platt – Flatliners, The Three Musketeers). Bruce sees Jaime’s natural charisma as his ticket to Chicago, the headquarters for Pfizer so that he can be closer to his wife and kids.

Jamie is confident in his abilities but finds getting close to the doctors who can prescribe his medication more difficult than he imagined. He woes the receptionists with flowers. He beds the doctor’s assistants. He dumps the samples of Prozac and replaces them with Pfizer’s Zoloft. He’s got monthly sales quotas that he needs to meet, and he’s determined to make those quotas by whatever means necessary. He pays one doctor named Stan Knight (Hank Azaria –  The Birdcage, The Simpsons Movie) $1000 if he lets Jamie shadow him for a day.

It is here that Jamie meets Maggie Murdock (Hathaway), one of his patients, who has Stage 1 Parkinson’s Disease. She tells Dr. Knight some far-fetched story of how her apartment was broken into and quickly names all of the prescriptions that he needs for him to write referrals. Maggie is quirky, energetic, somewhat neurotic, and seems so full of life despite her disease. Jamie is instantly drawn to her. And because he is sleeping with Dr. Knight’s assistant, he can get Maggie’s contact information through her.

Soon, they are meeting for coffee and, within minutes, are in bed with each other. Their relationship is initially based purely on no-strings-attached, animalistic lust. Director Edward Zwick does a fantastic job of showing how strong each character’s sexual drive is. It could have been easy to establish how much they want each other in a couple of scenes and then move on to other parts of the story. But Zwick dives more in-depth into each scene and shows their lovemaking in a variety of locations, both public and private. There is absolutely no second-guessing their physical attraction to one another.

Now, we can all tell what will happen next without seeing the movie. Despite their no-strings-attached approach, one develops stronger feelings and, thus, conflict. In this case, playboy Jamie realizes that being with Maggie brings out his best self. Without giving away any more of the story, when Jamie makes his feelings known, the dynamics between him and Maggie change dramatically. This allows us to see the true acting range of both actors. Hathaway proves she is one of the finest actresses of her generation, while Gyllenhaal gives the most exceptional performance of his career. After his performance, I cannot imagine any other actor nailing this role as well as he did.

The other exciting aspect of this story was that it was during this time that Pfizer introduced Viagra to the general public. Everybody wants to get their hands on it. Jamie suddenly becomes a hot commodity, and his sales soar. He’s well on his way to climbing the corporate ladder and landing in Chicago. Suddenly, those who wanted nothing to do with Jamie are on him like bees on honey. Jamie, who naturally loves being the center of attention, eats it all up.

I also want to emphasize Zwick’s excellent portrayal of Parkinson’s disease. I believe this is the first mainstream movie that has brought this disease to the forefront. It is undoubtedly the first one that I have seen. Most of us know about the disease through what we see and read about Michael J. Fox or Muhammad Ali. I read Fox’s autobiography Lucky Man, so I have a working understanding of the disease. Hathaway perfectly shows what Fox writes about Stage 1 of Parkinson’s. We also get to meet people in different stages of the disease. We can also see how seeing these people affects Jamie and, more importantly, Maggie.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 10/10
Character Chemistry 10/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 9.5/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
92.5%

I enjoyed the story. I liked all the main characters and thought they were brilliantly developed. I enjoyed seeing each character’s rawest emotions, but the other characters in the movie weren’t always able to see those emotions. I recommend this movie to anybody over seventeen interested in riding the emotional roller coaster that Love & Other Drugs is.