Love and Other Drugs

Just what the doctor ordered

Jerry Maguire gets a modern updating (and spares us Tom Cruise) in this tale of an ambitious young pharmaceutical rep who realises what’s actually important in life when he falls for a beautiful woman with a debilitating disease.  Yup – just like it said in the trailer.

Jake Gyllenhaal (so sincerely charming and outrageously handsome that I would buy Viagra off him out of his car boot in an abandoned carpark) provides the perfect dosage of sleazy-but-vulnerable to cure Anne Hathaway’s scepticism that her early-onset Parkinson’s will prevent anyone from caring for her.  Meanwhile, we get to see the dirty underbelly of the medical profession, reassert our assumptions that pharmaceutical companies are simply evil, and watch a lot of practically-nude sex enjoyed by our perfectly pH-balanced young leads.

The overarching story isn’t new, though Hathaway handles her character’s Parkinson’s with great sensitivity having apparently researched the disease and spoken to sufferers.  Rather than using it as a prop, the condition itself is treated as a supporting character of sorts when Maggie attends a meeting and hears from others experiencing the symptoms, in what is the most moving scene in the film.  There are shades of Up in the Air in Gyllenhaal’s Jamie’s cavalier attitude to women and his evident aptitude in a sales role (delivering punchy, complicated dialogue that is laden with medical terminology, like some sort of Rainman).  Like a Clooney-in-training, Jamie is to learn the error of his slutty (sorry – what’s the appropriate male term? studly?) ways when the mutually-agreed “just sex” becomes something altogether more emotional for him.

On the one hand, this is a typical Hollywood rom-com (albeit more rom than com – although we have to endure the now seemingly obligatory fat-curly-haired-oddball-sidekick bumbling his way through embarassing scenarios, in order to hammer home just how cool and handsome Jamie is in comparison – or perhaps to provide light relief from the serious illness subplot).  However, the preponderance of semi-explicit sexual activity is more in keeping with an indie film along the lines of Hathaway’s brilliant Rachel Getting Married.  Similarly, the story is a fairly basic morality tale, which skims the bigger issues of corporate exploitation and pure greed, without really making eye contact.

Overall, it’s the believable chemistry between Jamie and Maggie (so much happier than in their previous pairing in Brokeback Mountain) that makes the film so watchable and largely forgivable, even if at the end you can’t help wondering whether you got the placebo rather than the real thing.

IN BRIEF – Reviews of films past:

Nine

Actually, despite not-exactly-rave reviews, I thought this was spectacular.  Based loosely on Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ (if you studied that at Uni, as I did), Nine is a musical set in 1960s Roma, where Guido Contini (played wonderfully, as ever, by Daniel Day-Lewis) is a famous movie director whose film is about to start shooting – only he doesn’t yet know what it’s about.  Plagued by writer’s block and the various women in his life (played by Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson and Judi Dench), this is a glorious evocation of a time when film-making was glamorous, cars were fast, and women were ridiculously beautiful.  I didn’t know any of the songs beforehand, but came out singing, utterly exhilarated.  Special mention goes to Fergie for her signature tune “Be Italian”.  The film certainly made me wish I was…

Up In The Air

This isn’t just about George Clooney (he’s far too old for me, anyway).  Up In The Air is rightly receiving Golden Globes and Oscar nods as a brilliantly funny, perceptive take on corporate culture, the recession, and relationships.  Ryan Bingham (Clooney) flies around the USA firing people on behalf of their cowardly bosses.  He loves the isolation his life affords him, clocking up millions of air miles, 340+ days a year.  When two women enter his life and threaten his world – one, a female version of his commitment phobic self, the other a bright young exec who proposes firing people over Skype – sparks fly and lessons are (of course) learnt – but not quite as you’d think.

It’s Complicated…

With an engaging, truthful performance from Meryl Streep as a 50-something divorcee who has an affair with her ex-husband (played with hilarity and seemingly no shame by Alec Baldwin), this film is well-written and completely entertaining.  Steve Martin makes a welcome return to our screens playing a down-to-earth architect who gives Streep pause for thought as she embarks on “one of the craziest things I’ve ever done”, as she negotiates the loss of her grown-up children from the nest, and tries to establish the next phase of her life.  Lots of laughs, plenty of home-truths, and not saccharine at all.

Avatar

Some people loved it (I know this from lengthy discussions in the tearoom at work).  Some people may still be unsure as to whether they need to see the most technologically advanced film in history.  If you’re looking for a clever narrative, good acting and a witty script, then perhaps don’t bother.  But there is no denying this is history in the making, and James Cameron has produced something very special indeed (for which he maybe deserved the Best Director Oscar in my eyes, but not Best Picture).  Avatar truly is amazing to watch, and to get lost in for 2+ hours.  See it 3D (Imax if you can handle it, but normal screen is fine too) and take it as pure entertainment.  Either that, or see the highest-grossing film of all time simply because you don’t want to be left out.

Creation

This film didn’t screen in many cinemas in my town, but it’s absolutely worth a look (even on DVD).  Paul Bettany and real-life wife Jennifer Cononlley play Charles & Emma Darwin – he of The Origin of Species masterpiece that shaped our understanding of the world in which we live.  This is a subtle film, beautifully acted and told, covering Darwin’s ambivalence about his discoveries and the church’s concern about what he was going to write.  The relationship between Darwin and his wife is somewhat inspirational, but it is his love for eldest daughter Alice that provides the backbone for the story.

Sherlock Holmes

Robert Downey Jr pulls off an exhilarating rendition of the famous detective, upping his physical prowess in impressively choreographed boxing matches, and nailing the witty dialogue, in what should be considered director Guy Ritchie’s return to form (he of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, rather than he “Mrs Madonna”).  Jude Law plays the put-upon Dr Watson, and together our heroes provide a most entertaining spectacle of how to catch an occultist murderer in olden-days London.  This is a jolly romp, not entirely faithful to the Basil Rathbone films of yore, but beautifully shot, lit and full of action.