It is 1996 and an intelligent, out of work, and underachieving Lothario goes to work as a pharmaceutical salesman, a job which he struggles at initially. Then he gets word that a pill to treat erectile dysfunction is coming out and he begins to thrive selling Viagra at the same time he meets a free spirit with Parkinson's whom he begins to fall in love with. Love and Other Drugs is a dismal sex comedy and it makes me weary just describing it. It is from director Edward Zwick who is best known for his historical epics (Glory, The Last Samurai), though he did make About Last Night... another romantic sex farce. Here he has made a film so bad, I never dreamed he had it in him. The humor is off putting and unfunny and the dialogue is simply cringe inducing. After a supposed romp in the first half, it turns mushy and decides it wants us to take it seriously. Stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are capable of good acting and have been good before, but here there poor qualities shine through, especially Hathaway. She has a proclivity to be irritating and pretentious and she just lets that inclination run wild here. The result is off-putting characters that I cared nothing about. I know they were playing characters who weren't necessarily supposed to be likable, but there is a way to play unlikable and this ain't it. Love and Other Drugs may make you seek your local pharmacists or other provider and help with the pain induced by this sad excuse for a movie. Next time Ed, stick to the battlefields.
