movies: love and other drugs

Let's get a couple of things out of the way about Love and Other Drugs before we start...

Yes, there are a whole bunch of sex scenes, but they just make the movie seem truer, there isn't this artificial modest making sure everything is always covered, although shadows to hide a multitude sometimes...

Yes, we see Anne Hathaway's breasts, but we saw them in Brokeback Mountain, and while I'm not an expert on breasts, they appear to be very nice ones...

Yes, we get to see a LOT of Jake Gyllenhaal's bare ass, almost his bare everything to be honest, and I'm something of an expert on male asses, and his is fucking amazing.

And yes, it's an updated take on the romantic comedy of yesteryear, but without the need to delay the sex... and it's also more of a romantic dramedy.

Having said all of that, it's actually a really strong movie.

Hathaway is really amazing... she's powerful and frail and vulnerable and feisty and very much a woman in command of her own sexual identity and who knows what she wants and what she doesn't want.

Gyllenhaal is equally good... even though his character spends the first half of the movie essentially being a self described "shit head"... a charming, lying flirty shit head. And that smile... from the full on charm assaulting version to the wry little half smile... man, oh man...

The supporting cast also hold their own... although I have to say that the one who was completely superfluous to the story and the most annoying was also the one who had the most screen time.

Yes, Josh Gad, I'm looking at you. Your character was completely pointless and a total waste of time, and you were incredibly annoying and on screen for far too long.

And while I know that it's based on a book which takes place around the birth of Viagra and that's part of the plot, it did feel like it was a movie that didn't really need to be locked into a particular time or even need the whole Viagra angle... because at heart, once you strip all the extraneous material away, it's a simple story about a guy and a girl and what people will do when they're in love.

It's definitely in the must-see column though.

yani's rating: 4 little blue pills out of 5