Zoloft, Prozac, Viagra, and Anne Hathaway’s shaky Parkinson’s-ridden body knocking over one of her several prescription bottles — a more apt title would be “Drugs and this little thing called Love.” Director Edward Zwick seems to have no problem hitting us over the head repeatedly with his take on the U.S. drug powerhouses.
Jamie (Jake Gyllenhall) plays the lust-driven macho that has spent most of his life charming women into his bed. Saddled with a new job in sales for the drug company Pfizer, Jamie is competing with other pharmaceutical representatives, wooing nurses and posing as an intern to get to doctors.
It is in the doctor’s office that the unlikely lust blooms for Jamie and Maggie (Anne Hathaway), a free-spirit avoiding commitment.
For a while, their explicit relationship centering on Jamie being an asshole with no commitment potential as Maggie wishes, works. Meanwhile, the audience is still being prodded by pharmaceutical jabs, this time in the form of the booming new drug, Viagra. Boxes are being tossed, people are begging, prescriptions are booming and Jamie is the thriving seller.
Pushing aside the drug enhancers (pun intended), Anne Hathaway’s performance is spot on. Attractive but scarred by her past and her illness, Hathaway nails the conflicted push and pull any relationship comes with.
She can repeat every drug she takes by name, including quantity and time, but she oscillates between her straightforward matter-of-fact attitude and a more subdued inner silence that fights Jamie’s attempts of getting any closer.
Their chemistry is astounding and holds our attention where pill pushing leads us astray. Without it, the audience would be stuck swimming among free samples of drug after drug.
