Love and Other Drugs
Whether it offers something truly different to the standard rom-com is up for debate – with marks given for effort.

It’s 1996. Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal) is an eager and handsome sales rep for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Viagra is about to happen, and he wants in. He flirts, connives and charms his way into the good books of surgery receptionists and doctors, but meets his match in Maggie (Hathaway), a beautiful and headstrong Parkinson’s sufferer. She is immune to the Randall sales pitch, opting instead to engage in a mutually beneficial physical relationship with no strings attached, and they certainly spend a lot of time together naked.  But when Jamie starts to fall for Maggie in an unexpected – to him, not us – way, he must question his own tolerance for the complexities of living with disease.

To its credit, the film largely avoids the usual clichés. As disease becomes a cruel reality check to the burgeoning relationship between Maggie and Jamie, the camera favours intimate moments of doubt and insecurity – Maggie fumbling helplessly with a medication bottle, Jamie’s frustration at her self-medication by hitting the bottle – we are reminded that degenerative illnesses are hard, long battles that can leave even the strongest couple swimming in a sea of helplessness. In one scene, Jamie meets the husband of a woman in the advanced stages of the disease, devoted, caring and in it for the long haul. But he tells Jamie if he could go back, he wouldn’t do it all again. These moments remind us that no-one is a saint, and ask is Jamie, far from saintly, made of tough enough stuff to devote his life to Maggie’s illness? Sadly, the plot gives way to an obligatory chase scene and predictable ending, which feels slightly disassociated from the rest of the story.

There are fantastic supporting roles from Hank Azaria as successful sleazeball Dr Knight and Josh Gad as Jamie’s hapless younger brother, both offering some sophisticated comic relief. The ever-reliable Judy Greer features as one of Jamie’s wooed receptionists, and plays the smitten-then-scorned woman role extremely well without descending into parody.

Although marketed as a romantic comedy-come-drama, Love and Other Drugs draws strength from the Big Pharma backdrop, and some of the films most fascinating scenes portray Jamie’s learning curve in the highly competitive market he is thrust in to, via the teachings of his boss (Oliver Platt). The context is everything; it takes the storyline away from the standard format into something altogether more interesting. In the trailers, very little is shown of Jamie’s fight to ride the wave of phenomenon of Viagra sales, which is a shame, as it makes up a large and valuable part of the story.

For those fans of romance, this is a more considered and subtle twist on the boy meets girl plus obstacles setting, and won’t be disappointed with the inevitable conclusion, although less forgiving viewers may find is a cop-out. As always Hathaway is charming and impossible to dislike, while Gyllenhaal is cast well as the womanizer turned monogamist. The film will certainly draw audiences with its star power but whether it offers something truly different to the standard rom-com is up for debate – with marks given for effort.

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