So, I like bad movies. I love romantic comedies and I can certainly stomach the occasional terribly predictable plot. I thought that a mindless night filled with a partially nude Jack Gyllenhaal would do wonders for my brain dead spirit. I quickly discovered that a story filled with not only a partially nude Jake Gyllenhall, a totally nude Anne Hathaway and a horribly depressing yet not fully extended plot sidetrack featuring Parkinson's disease was not something I had taken into account nor care to ever again.
Love and Other Drugs was not the whimsical jaunt through a casual sex comedy I had pictured. Actually, I'm not sure what I pictured. But gratuitous sex scenes with Hathaway's unabashed breasts and the feeling that at any moment someone was going to mention Parkinson's disease was a bit more than I cared to handle.
For any great sexual dramedy, you've got the basics down:
-Attractive Protagonists Wherein One Doesn't Want the Other
-Annoying Jonah Hill-esque Sidekick
-Enough Conflict to At Least Get You to Act Three
-An Insurmountable Feat That Can Only Be Pursued By the Power of Love
-One Good Chase Scene That Ends With An Expression of Already-Revealed Feelings
This was a normal love story in sheep's clothing : Parkinson's clothing. I feel like this is what every single love story is trying to tell these days but trying to do it in some drastically new and different way. Can we all agree that it just doesn't work anymore? We need a new story!
I don't care how many social issues you tack on or how many gratuitous sex scenes with hot co-stars you try to illuminate, we are very very bored.*
*These stories can and should, however, include a few more scenes with a partially nude Jake Gyllenhall. That part, sure, you can keep.
