“Life Changed Forever”

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS is a bittersweet romantic comedy with a twist, and by “twist” I don’t mean a twist of lemon that could be applied, but rather a subplot that provides its “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” jokes.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway star, two excellent actors who are not only easy on the eyes, but also both of whom have already been mentioned as possibilities for Best Actor and Best Actress awards in 2011 for this movie.

The time is 1996, and Jake plays Jamie Randall, an enthusiastic salesman of practically everything, but most of his successful sales seem to be to attractive women, if you catch my drift.

In fact, his sales techniques and satisfied customers tend to get him fired, too, and so at a family dinner with his parents and millionaire brother, when they talk about their professional accomplishments, Jamie has to announce, “I am looking for other opportunities.”

Jamie finds a job, and he goes through six weeks of training to become a pharmaceutical representative for a major drug company. The job requires hard-core sales, and he has a quota he has to meet.

Now, sooner or later everyone likes Jamie, because he will do anything to make them like him.

That includes paying $1,000 to Dr. Stan Knight, played by Hank Azaria, to let Jamie shadow him one day, and if anyone asks, Jamie is an intern.

One of the patients is Maggie Murdock, who has early onset Parkinson’s Disease, and Jamie is instantly smitten.

Maggie finds out about Jamie’s deception, but she agrees to go out with him anyway, because she is just like him, not looking for any long-term relationship, except that in her case she doesn’t want to become an inevitable burden to anyone.

Then Jamie’s company comes out with a little blue pill called Viagra, and that changes everything in Jamie’s life.

Of course, Jamie’s and Maggie’s relationship has its ups and downs–wink, wink, nudge, nudge–and I don’t mean just physical.

If this enjoyable romcom has a moral, it would be “Everybody needs someone to take care of them.”

And, of course, people like Jamie and Maggie don’t believe that originally and fight it as long as they can.

LOVE & OTHER DRUGS also shows how you can meet one person and your life is changed forever.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”