Love and Other Drugs

Ratings: 7.5/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Romantic Drama

Love and other drugs is more than just your average romantic comedy with a considerable amount of nudity. The extra 0.5 ratings definitely goes to all the stripping Anne Hathaway had to undergo (prolly just my testosterone talking), but it also enabled us to better understand her character in the movie.

Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a casanova sales person working for Pfizer and a chance meeting had him falling in love with Maggie (Anne Hathaway), a carefree woman who suffers from early stage Parkinson's disease and who's a nymphomania. Although Maggie doesn't want their relationship to be serious, Jamie manages to break down that wall, only to build it up again when he started to fear what their future holds.

*spoilers ahead* This movie is actually more abstract than what it looks on the surface. Though I demerited the movie cos of the story development, the scripting was good, and backed with excellent acting on both the main leads, the characters in the movie were brought to life. Anne Hathaway stole the limelight not just for baring it all this film, but was also able to deliver the internal struggles a person suffering from Parkinson's was enduring. Her illness caused her to be what she is, having casual sex to ease that loneliness and her self-pity manifested uncontrollably. The part which featured different individuals plagued by the disease was highly endearing and tear wrenching.

One could literally "break" down this movie into 2 parts, the sex and character development during the first half, and character engagement during the second. Thought the main focus of the movie wasn't the romance or the drugs, but more on the internal struggles of an individual suffering from Parkinson's. That's why I demerited this movie. Felt that there were too many concepts that the director was trying to bring across, which made the flow a little too chunky and detached. But all in all, a movie definitely not to be missed. Quite the wholesome romantic drama movie one can expect.