What’s curious about Love and Other Drugs is that when, somewhere midway through the film, Viagra is prescribed into the story, the effect on the plot is actually a loss of stamina...
Love and Other Drugs attempts the extremely challenging genre of Dramedy, a genre in which so few movies manage to strike a gentle balance required to make it work. This film, however, fails. It starts as a fresh comedy, daring at what not too many USA produced main-stream films have done to date – feature passionate, borderline soft-porn scenes, onscreen; and what better actors to watch performing these attempts than Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. But the film then changes gear into a melodrama that compacts romance, challenges of a relationship loaded with health issues, a study of self-confidence, topped with social commentary about the price of medical drugs, greed-driven pharmaceuticals, rebellion against parents, etc.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, escorted by a terrific Oliver Platt, remain delightful to watch, but the story loses credibility and direction. It starts to feel like a patient overdosing on Xanax and suffering from various undesirable side-effects. What could have been a fun comedy, or, possibly, an engaging drama, turns into a mellow movie, not really worth the time spent watching it. Too bad. Some drugs should not be mixed.