A simple and swift film about the trials and tribulations of ones inner journey brought about by the external factors that precipitate to help get there. Like French cinema that meddles with your mind, or even the Italian that draws from simple story lines and weaves them into these complex sagas, this piece of American cinema is rather direct and yet with all the nuances that finds the right threads if you know where to look for them.
On the pessimistic front, I found two things amiss, first the entire pharmaceutical inclusion unnecessary: barely contributed to the storyline. Wonder what the producers and writers were thinking while wanting to include that angle. The exclusion of the time wasted on it could have been used adequately to build the situation between Jake and Ann a bit stronger. The second aspect that could have been dealt with a little more sensitively was of Parkinson’s. It was rather sketchy and unexplored. People who swear by cinema and see the portrayal of the onset of the disorder would be petrified, in a way. The team ought to have taken the preventive measures to present it adequately than making it slightly awkward, or even scary, as they did here.
I don’t really care that majority of the critics have shot the movie down ruthlessly. What’s more, sometimes critics too write garbage. Then again, perhaps the fact that I love Jake and Ann might be the reason I decided to overlook the flaws and concentrate on the strengths. I suggest you do the same as well and have a nice evening watching Love And Other Drugs. Yes, nail them babes with the strongest aphrodisiac, your ‘own mind’ that can keep your member ‘up’ rather then resorting to popping the blue pill for assistance. And that we are on the topic of the blue pill, well, a serious word of caution: do not be mislead by the publicity of the movie that promotes plenty skin. Certainly, there is sex and some delightful sex too, but do not be fooled that this is some slow, browbeating art-house product. It is hundred per cent American at its European best.
