Finally Saw: "Love & Other Drugs"

Aw yes, let me first start by saying that I took a hiatus away from life and writing. But I am now re-energized after taking a mini-break to London last week where in a future post(s) will explain my love for british tv sitcoms and dramas. But that's a whole 'nother time, so I digress while I sit here eating my Maltesers and Wymans Wine Gums...

...I must give a shout out to Air New Zealand as I was a bit hesitant at first with this airline, but I give them a hefty two thumbs-up if you're taking a non-stop trip from LAX to Heathrow. With it being such a long flight, you are offered a plethora of newly released films which made me salivate. I fought my chronic narcolepsy on a plane as much as I could and in the end, only one film won in it's entirety and that was "Love & Other Drugs" which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. I enjoyed this film, as I usually would enjoy any film where you might catch a glimpse of a nearly naked Jake, and found the relationship between his character, Jamie, and Anne Hathaway's character, Maggie, quite the opposite as to what happens in real romantic relationships. Never would you find the ultimate "player" guy falling for a girl with parkinson's disease who chooses to only use him for sex and denies him the right of being his girlfriend. Never would you find a girl who is afraid of commitment after this guy actively pursues this girl and even confesses that he loves her. Okay, I may sound a tad cynical but I liked this film because it showed a complete reversal of emotion in how we generally perceive how a "player" operates. This is also a fictional film, might I remind us of that.

"Love & Other Drugs" was directed by Edward Zwick and I found it a nice departure from his previous epic and profilic films such as: "Defiance", "The Last Samurai", "Courage Under Fire" and "Legends of the Fall". I enjoyed the cast which included Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria (loved him from my "Simpsons" days - yes, I used to work on the show and no, I was not the voice of Bart), Josh Gad (why does he seem familiar? He played Jonathan Ame's arch-enemy ex-BF of his lover on "Bored to Death" and was also in "21"), George Segal, Gabriel Macht and Judy Greer.

So go see this film - and thank me later.