Review: Nudity hides love story in "Love and Other Drugs"

You may have heard a few things about the movie "Love and Other Drugs" already. You may have heard it's a movie about the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. You may have heard that co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are very naked for significant portions of the film. While both those items are present, especially the second, they really just serve as window dressing for a surprisingly touching story that, if you can wade through some nonsense, is well worth watching.

Gyllenhaal stars as Jamie Randall, a natural salesman who is just as proficient closing deals in the bedroom as the sales floor. After being fired from a retail job at an electronics outlet, his brother gets him an entry-level sales job at Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant responsible for drugs such as Zoloft, Xanax and, about halfway through the film, Viagra.

Those expecting hard-hitting social commentary on the pharmaceutical industry will be very disappointed. The movie almost has to remind you what Jamie's job is at times, and the entire business storyline fades into the background halfway through.

The reason for that is, early into his career as a budding drug salesman, Jamie meets Maggie Murdock (Hathaway), a free-spirited artist who is in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. They soon wind up in bed (with very little left to the viewer's imagination), and much of the rest of the film is about the complicated decisions they both must make as their relationship grows.

The movie only drags when it turns away from Jamie and Maggie, which it unfortunately does often. The movie can't seem to figure out what it wants the focus to be, and furthermore doesn't decide whether it wants to be a love story or a screwball, boner-joke-laden comedy. As funny as it is to see Jake Gyllenhaal in an emergency room with a pillow over his privates, it detracts here.

But the worst part of the movie is Jamie's immediate family. Jamie's brother Josh (played by "Daily Show" correspondent and Jonah Hill stand-in Josh Gad) is easily one of the most annoying, reprehensible and unwanted characters in recent memory, which is made worse by the oversized amount of screen time he has. Every second he is on screen is nothing short of excruciating.

All these flaws would doom the movie were it not for Anne Hathaway. Maggie is a complex and heartbreaking character, and the on-screen chemistry between her and Jake Gyllenhaal is free and easy. We want them to end up together, and we want them to plow through all the roadblocks that the movie throws in their way.

In the end, this is a pretty formulaic romantic story, with a few extra spoonfuls of nudity than your average chick flick. However, the lead characters are so charming it doesn't matter. The movie loses focus often, but every time it zooms back in on Jamie and Maggie, you are compelled to watch.