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Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal provide sweet chemistry that helps reach across gaps in the script

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

The romantic comedy "Love and Other Drugs" goes through so many personality changes that it needs to adjust its meds.

By turns goofy and cynical, smart and engaging, sappy and predictable, this is half a cineplex of symptoms crammed into one film capsule. Only the sweet chemistry between leads Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal helps the medicine go down.

Co-writer Edward Zwick provides director Edward Zwick with an oversupply of plot points in this 1990s period piece, but that problem is not immediately evident. The movie quickly establishes Gyllenhaal's Jamie Randall as a charming slacker, getting fired from his job as a stereo salesman for banging a co-worker in the storeroom even as he moves directly to romancing a customer.

It's a promising start, made even better by the following family dinner scene, which features George Segal and the late Jill Clayburgh, in her next to last screen role, as Jamie's parents. Natalie Gold is effective as Jamie's more successful sister.

It's a throwback to the 1970s when — who knew? — Hollywood and the American economy both hit their peaks. Segal was a leading man with a light touch, capable of drama as well as comedy. Clayburgh was a leading lady with brains, a beautiful woman who insisted on using her talent instead of ornamenting actors.

Unfortunately, from a roomful of talent, Zwick decides to focus on Jamie's schlubby brother Josh (Josh Gad), a new Internet millionaire who clearly has no connection to the rest of this sophisticated family.

By way of explaining this otherwise inexplicable casting, Josh is unattractive and therefore a figure of fun for Hollywood types like Zwick. He will soon be tossed out by his better looking wife and spend the rest of the movie crashing on his brother's crouch, which even causes the script to ask, but not answer, why he is not off enjoying his millions. A real laff riot.

By that time, though, Josh has fixed up Jamie with a job as a salesman for Pfizer. As New Jerseyans know, the drug industry practically satirizes itself, and the movie briefly taps into that rich vein.

Always reliable Oliver Platt materializes as Jamie's new boss/mentor, learning that his new colleague is better at closing deals with hot babes than with suspicious doctors.

Hank Azaria as a crass physician, but one who writes a lot of scripts for anti-depressants, becomes one type of target. Sly Judy Greer as his receptionist is another sort. Twenty minutes in, though, "Love and Other Drugs" swerves sharply, as Jamie meets a Parkinson's patient who shares his yen for lots of meaningless sex.

This could be fatal, because as written, Maggie Murdoch is The Girl, The Plot Device, The Male Wish Fulfillment. But as played by Anne Hathaway, this imaginary character turns into a real woman. It helps that Hathaway and Gyllenhall, who worked togther on "Brokeback Mountain," have the sort of relaxed, natural intimacy that reaches across gaps in the script.

These two gorgeous people have a number of bedroom scenes that never seem painfully choreographed. Yes, for a Hollywood movie, the leads show a fair amount of skin, and it's all choice. More importantly — well, equally importantly — they are open to each other.

Gyllenhaal has an advantage, since he has a character to play. But Hathaway conjures a real person out of a disease diagnosis. Everything about her role, even her character's job, is built around her medical condition. Hathaway sees beyond that, and allows the audience to share her vision.

No, she's not Noomi Rapace's Lisbeth Salander, or Carey Mulligan's Kathy from "Never Let Me Go." But if they expand the Oscars to include the category of Making Something from Nothing, Anne Hathaway has it wired.

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it