The movie starts out as a great man's comedy with Jake Gyllenhaal charming every woman from 8 to 80 selling them lower tier electronics. This basically lasted through the credits as he gets fired for being a little too charming with the boss's girlfriend in the stock room. His family has money and he gets a job as a Pfizer salesman, something the movie makes out to be an evil job. He uses his charm and ability to have casual sex to sell drugs. During this time he meets Anne Hathaway (multiple nude scenes, thank you Anne) and they have incredible casual sex. The movie was great up to this point. Then we find out Anne has Parkinson's disease which is why she is a free spirit.

Jake falls in love, turning this into "Love Story", then the comedy simply dies.

Some crude humor, sex, nudity, f-bomb.

Love stories are essentially the same -- it's a matter of how you dress them up. Many will see through "Love and Other Drugs" and count the romance clichés and formulaic characters, others will find the 1996 setting and the pharmaceutical angle refreshing. Both forces are hard at work in this film, but the tipping point goes in favor thanks to the leads, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. There's a reason most romantic films are judged based on the chemistry of their lead actors. When it comes to romance, it's not about how cleverly written the two characters are and how unique and special they feel to us. What counts is whether they can convince you of their attraction/love and get you to -- without blunt coercion -- invest in what happens to them. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have what it takes to do just that in spite of a script that sometimes tries to lean too hard on conventional tactics of boys meets girl. Gyllenhaal plays Jamie, an expert salesman who lands a gig as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Pfizer, right before Viagra hit the market. He's also adept at landing any woman he desires. He epitomizes a Don Juan and he's plays the type well, but when you can predict that he'll end up in bed with the next attractive woman that shows up on screen, the writing has taken it a bit far. As good of a filmmaker as Edward Zwick is, his best credits include "Glory," "The Last Samurai" and "The Blood Diamond" -- not exactly romance. He co-wrote the script (based on Jamie Reidy's memoir) with longtime collaborator Marshall Herskovitz and thriller writer Charles Randolph ("The Interpreter"),so no real romantic comedy prowess exists among them, hence the tendency to stick with genre conventions. One such convention is Jamie's brother (Josh Gad),who plays the little brother crashing on Jamie's couch who has a porn addiction and makes clueless statements, usually to the tune of no laughs, but he does help break the tension. Enter girl. Jamie meets Maggie, a bit of a free-spirited cynic who (in a unique twist) has way early onset Parkinson's. Many will be quick to jump on the "diseased girl" archetype, but don't judge Hathaway's prowess that quickly. As completely pathetic as Maggie's self-esteem might be and how strictly anti-commitment she is, when her character caves in to the romance as they all do, Hathaway gives Maggie a believable fragility rather than a melodramatic tone. Jamie's motives for wanting to spend more time with Maggie and not simply continuing his streak of banging all who possess lady parts are reduced to the reason of "she's playing hard to get," which is not the best of reasons. The same can be said about Maggie constantly accusing Jamie of having pity sex with the diseased girl. However, watching these two charm each other and overcome the cliché has a definite appeal. The two spend a lot of naked time together, making "Love and Other Drugs" the best date movie this holiday season. But on a serious note, the drug angle and the "recent past" setting give us something else to chew on, which is nice. Zwick never truly marries that story line with the romance except "Jamie sells drugs and Maggie has a disease that lacks an effective one." The thematic ties are not quite there despite the plot coincidences and the fitting title. "Love and Other Drugs" is hardly the cure for the common romantic comedy, but the consistent dosage of its two stars by and large pushes away those symptoms. ~Steven C

I must say that "Love and Other Drugs" is clearly one of the better films I've saw in awhile. For a variety of reasons for one the chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Hathaway is in perfect form as the two worked together before(as a couple in "Brokeback Mountain"). Second it's an emotional story that involves sickness and finding unexpected love. And finally what can I say the film has plenty of passion, lust and hot steamy love scenes so plenty plenty of sex! So aside from those reasons this picture can best be summed up as a kind of old fashioned romance falling in love story that touches your emotions as you feel the couples(Jamie and Maggie)growing pains of trust, sickness and feel good pleasure. Still the sex overshadows those ingredients leaving a happy and feel good side effect for a viewer like me and it helps because I'm a big Anne Hathaway fan and with this picture you get to see plenty of her skin.

Set in the mid 1990's when the economy was booming you have Jamie(Jake Gyllenhaal)who's a young playboy from a well to do family and his biggest love in life is going to bed with hot young females. Then Jamie decides to get a little bit more power hungry when he becomes a pharmaceutical sales rep. he's taken under the arms of an ego driven boss Bruce(Oliver Platt)and the catch and sale of the game is for Jamie to use his charm and good looks to help sell medicine like Zoloft and Viagra(remember the wonder pills of the 90's!). Plus his connection with a cocky Dr. Knight(Hank Azaria)helps his climb and profile in the drug selling world too! Now that Jamie has became a hotshot pharmaceutical rep. he now meets his match in one of Knight's patients that being the sassy and witty sharp tongued free spirited sexy Maggie Murdock(Anne Hathaway in her best and most sexy role of her career)as you can see a lot of adjectives to describe her. Only blemish with the beautiful Maggie is that she has stage one Parkinson's disease. Never mind these hot young attractive singles hit it off perfect as this quickly becomes a relationship of no strings attached lust bedroom making very hot passionate sex(I must say the bed and love scenes were very hot for an R rated film). And this is what both enjoy lots and lots of sex.

Yet as the charms of Jamie continues to go both for Maggie and his business he unexpectedly starts to have feelings for Maggie has he finally meet his match can he charm the stubborn sex magnet Maggie? The film is blended well with both comedy and drama as Jamie's slob geek overweight brother Josh(Josh Gad) provides laughs trying to score and it's fun seeing he's addicted to watching internet porn and sex tapes. Plus the scene of Jamie's boner from taking the Viagra pill was down right funny. Still Maggie is a serious go getter by traveling even to Canada to Parkinson support groups in the search for new cures and ways of living with the disease.

This film thru it all is wonderful as the sex and hot lustful passion make it a tasty treat to watch and enjoy as the strong chemistry of Jake and Anne is great as Hathaway is sexy as ever. Those factors alone make it one of the better films I've seen. And adding the sickness theme of Parkinson's makes it depressing to some still it proves that anyone can be loved and that it's unexpected and everyone needs someone. Most of all it proves that sex and hot passion can easy lead to strong emotions of feeling and yes you guessed it as this film proves love. Love & Other Drugs is a feel good film that's enjoyable it touches emotions leaves you happy and you don't feel any side effects only love in the end.