Love and Other Drugs | B-

Love, sex, and drugs — one would assume that such a risqué combination would make for the next big box office hit, especially with the Brokeback Mountain stars reprising their roles as complicated lovers, right? Wrong. Though a new and refreshing take on a love story, Love and Other Drugs deals with darker and more adult themes to which the masses are not accustomed to seeing on the big screen.

Though set in the mid-1990s, Love and Other Drugs is not a period piece. Instead, it aims to merely tell a story without the pressures of displaying ever-changing technological advancements and contemporary current events. Based on the non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy, Love and Other Drugs tells the story of a traveling pharmaceutical salesman, Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal, Jarhead), who wants to rise through the ranks. When he meets Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway, The Princess Diaries), a woman in her early 20s who faces the onset of Parkinson's disease, they have a one-night stand and eventually enter into a complex relationship.

While the storyline itself failed to match expectations, if any at all, there was much talent in the performances in Love and Other Drugs. Gyllenhaal was able to provide a very dynamic performance, demonstrating a significant change in a suave Casanova looking for a fun time, to a man in love who wants to be with his beloved, regardless of any obstacles. Also, despite the awkwardness of the storyline and the unnecessary overkill of nudity, Love and Other Drugs may still be Hathaway's career-best; she plays Maggie Murdock impeccably, making sure to appropriately portray and not force the emotions of her character.

Unlike most R-rated movies these days, this film actually requires its designated movie rating level, not in just that there is overly excess nudity, but also because Love and Other Drugs is directed at the older, more adult crowd, as opposed to the teenaged target groups that most contemporary films aim to reach. The issues dealt with in Love and Other Drugs are very much adult and not in the least bit relatable to a teenager who faces only the trivial matters of everyday life. For instance, it is unfathomable to believe that the average teenager would consider using sexual favors to push a product in order to meet company selling quotas, as Randall faithfully demonstrated within the first few moments of the film.

Love and Other Drugs leaves the American public uncomfortable with many scenes, as it not only deals with the more mature themes, but it also incorporates a sex scene into the film about every 20 minutes or so, making the movie very similar in nature to European cinema. Don't watch this film if you're in the mood for a cookie cutter romantic comedy, but if you're looking to get out of your comfort zone, definitely be sure to give Love and Other Drugs a chance.