Love & Other Drugs

I just watched Love & Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.  It was a “good” movie, not “Great,” but good.  I enjoyed it a lot more than the Rom/Coms that have been coming out lately.  The reason I am mentioning it here is because of the writing.

The script was very interesting from a writing standpoint.  It was at its core a romantic comedy because it was funny in parts and romantic in parts.  But….mixed in were also underlining themes that were meaning-full and important.  There were points made in regards to the obsession this Country has with drugs, the horror of Parkinson’s decease, the failure of the health care system, the mental health problems of the homeless, ADD, and a variety of small references to other social troubles that are prevalent today.  How impressive for a 2 hour movie!  There were very few solutions offered, it was more like a mirror held up to see the problems and hopefully cause at least one person to look a little harder and maybe “think.”  Isn’t that one of the goals of a writer?  To get the message out there and have the reader (watcher) react in some way.  This movie accomplished that.  For that it made a mediocre “Boy meets Girl, Boy losses Girl, Boy gets Girl back” formula-matic story into a good movie that was entertaining AND thought provoking.

Much has been made of the fact that Anne Hathaway is naked in a lot of this movie.  It is a shame because her performance in this movie was very good and should have been acknowledged.  I wonder if the Director had made the decision to unrealistically hide her behind sheets and fancy lighting and camera angles if her acting would have been complimented and recognized?  The nudity in the movie was very important to the story.  It showed “Character” and, without dialogue, let us know something about both the male and female lead characters.  It wasn’t uncomfortable.  In places it was playful and in others romantic and an important part of the story.

As a life-long lover of movies I “liked” it, and recommend it.  As a writer I was impressed.  It was a lesson in storytelling, and I was paying attention.