Love and Other Drugs by Edward Zwick (About Last Night..., Legends of the Fall) opens to the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes," which instantly takes us back to the '90s--Lead Character's favorite decade! (Alanis Morissette! Fiona Apple! Magnolia! Boogie Nights! Highschool acne!) Lead Character finds himself tapping his feet on the floor. If you want to take your viewers back to the '90s, you don't really need to show cassette tapes or Motorola cellphones or denim jumpers for women or Viagra; just play the frickin' music!
Starting out with a lot of promise, the movie progresses pretty deftly with solid character buildup and terrific performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and the ever reliable Anne Hathaway. Gyllenhaal's character, Jamie, is a pharmaceutical sales rep who meets Maggie (Hathaway) at her doctor's clinic. Maggie has stage 1 Parkinson's disease, which doesn't really show yet so Jamie and Maggie have all the sex they want. Unfortunately, MTRCB intervened again and mutilated all the steamy lovemaking. This isn't completely bad, though, because everytime Jake Gyllenhaal calls Anne Hathaway "Maggie," his real-life sister comes to mind.
Just like any other romantic dramedies, the drama eventually surfaces. Maggie's Parkinson's disease is real, and Jamie and Maggie are then forced to acknowledge it, which paves the way to the story's resolution. In his head, Lead Character starts to wish, "Please, don't be cliché, please, please, please...." And to his dismay, they go that exact, horrific route.
Why do they always have to do this--have one character run after the other to make a big romantic speech about why they should be together? And they expect us to swoon? Why do they feel the need to do this when they know they cannot top Jerry Maguire? Why?!
This leads Lead Character into coming up with the top romantic comedies he's seen whose endings stood out:
Say Anything..., Roman Holiday, My Best Friend's Wedding, The Break-Up, and of course, even if marketed as a horror film, Lead Character considers Lars Von Trier's The Antichrist a romantic comedy with an ending that redefined romance.
No comments:
Post a Comment