Love and Other Drugs 2005

     This film is based on Jamie Reidy’s memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.  Jamie Randall started medical school in the 1990’s but he dropped out.  One story he tells is that it was because he didn’t want to do what his father wanted him to do.  Instead, he switches to a job as a pharmaceutical salesman in Ohio.  He takes this job because it pays a lot of money and he knows how to be a heel.  He likes to charm and play the cutthroat without a conscience game.  His goal is to earn his way to the highly coveted Chicago market.  He meets Maggie and he may have met his match.  She is a free spirit and she doesn’t want to be tied down by any man.

     Jamie is not a very likeable guy.  He uses the same line on every woman he meets or wants to meet.  He calls them Lisa and eventually he hopes they will correct him on their name and this will start a conversation.  He doesn’t care what he has to do to meet his selling quota and Chicago is the ultimate goal.  How can it hurt for a guy to sleep his way up the ladder?  There is a turn later on in the film.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

112 min, Comedy directed by Edward Zwick with Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Judy Greer, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Josh Gad, Gabriel Macht, George Segal, Jill Glayburgh, Kate Jennings Grant, Katheryn Winnick.

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, 49% critic 53% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 4.0* out of 5* with 506 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Gyllenhaal and Hathaway watched Pillow Talk (1959), 9 Songs (2004), Last Tango in Paris (1972) and other films as preparation for their scenes together.