Love and Other Drugs (2010)

This romantic comedy about a charismatic salesman and his prickly girlfriend was poorly reviewed (though audiences liked it better, 61%, than critics, 44%) but we didn't hate it at all. The stars are likeable and production values high (there's a fabulous loft in Pittsburgh). But, though I have nothing against weeping in movies, I didn't, and I was probably supposed to. Despite rottentomatoes' low ratings, it is #5 at the box office now in its third week. Jake Gyllenhaal (I wrote about him in Brothers) as Jamie and Anne Hathaway (I wrote about her in Alice in Wonderland, which came after Rachel Getting Married and Valentine's Day) as Maggie have great chemistry, perhaps honed from their previous, stunted movie relationship in Brokeback Mountain (2005). Plus, boys and girls, you get to see them both naked. Many have compared this to director/co-writer Edward Zwick's (I wrote about his intense work in Defiance) thirtysomething, which also brings to mind his lighter About Last Night... (1986), which I liked a lot. Co-writer/producer Marshall Herskovitz (co-creator of thirtysomething, producer and/or writer on every Zwick title) worked with Zwick and Charles Randolph (The Life of David Gale (2003), The Interpreter (2005)) to adapt Jamie Reidy's memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman into the script that is undoubtedly the problem for so many reviewers.

Really great supporting cast: Oliver Platt (since I wrote about him in Frost/Nixon he's been in 2012, Please Give, and the cable serieses Bored to Death and The Big C, and when he says the line about "stinky motels," it's as if it was written just for him) as Jamie's partner on the road, Hank Azaria (I love seeing him onscreen, and, though I hated Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, I wrote about him there) as one of the doctors, Josh Gad (I watched the now-canceled series Back to You--he was funny in it, and was also in the gambling movie 21 (2008)) as Jamie's chubby, disheveled brother, and entirely not enough of George Segal (Flirting With Disaster (1996), 2012, more) and Jill Clayburgh (Oscar nominated for An Unmarried Woman (1978), which was racy at that time because she walked around in a T-shirt and underpants, and for Starting Over (1979); I also loved Running With Scissors (2006), and much in between) as Jamie's parents. Sadly, Clayburgh died in November and will no doubt be honored at the Oscars in February.

If you have to choose only one movie to see this month, pick something else. But if you go often, you may enjoy this one.