Love & other drugs - side effect included - Blu Ray

Film: In Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway already played a couple whose love, however, was not under a good star from the beginning due to quite obvious difficulties. Now the two actors dare in Love & other drugs - side effect included under the direction of Edward Zwick (Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) a new attempt - but also this love seems doomed to failure.

There's no doubt that Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) would be hugely successful professionally if he put about half as much ambition into his career as he does into his countless female conquests. But when the Sonnyboy tries his hand at being a pharmaceutical salesman, he senses an opportunity to use his irresistible charm to make a lot of money, too. But there's one factor Jamie didn't count on: when he meets self-confident artist Maggie (Anne Hathaway) and she, like him, isn't looking for a commitment, just fun and good sex, the single man of conviction begins to discover a whole new set of feelings. But love isn't as easy to control as Jamie has been used to in his life so far - especially since there's a sad reason for Maggie's dismissive attitude towards any form of relationship...

The problem with Love & other drugs isn't that Zwick has delivered a bad film. But the fact that he apparently tried to make three different films at once doesn't do much for the overall picture. The film adaptation of the book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Saleman by Jamie Reidy is a satire on the pharmaceutical industry on the one hand, a romantic drama on the other hand and last but not least, whenever Jamie's brother Josh shows up, a crude sex comedy. And it's this last aspect that doesn't work at all in the overall context.

Because the platitudes and sex jokes Josh throws out here would fit more in a comedy from the house of Judd Apatow. They're not really grotty, but they don't fit the satirical tone or the dramatic moments. Worse, the good moments are diluted by the awkward gags, losing much of the power they are given by the very good interplay of Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal.

With a weaker duo as the drawing card, Edward zwick's new film would surely have made quite a nasty belly landing. But Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal are such eye candy together - and not just visually - that they're just fun to watch - even if the film doesn't actually do their talent justice. The fact that the two of them, and especially Anne Hathaway, still show full physical effort in the truest sense of the word is to their credit. It's a pity that the film only does justice to the devoted acting of its main actors in a few moments and wastes a lot of its actual potential. Nevertheless, despite some real low points, there are enough moments that are absolutely worth watching.

Picture + Sound: On the technical implementation, there is actually hardly ANYTHING to complain. The picture is very clean, has good contrasts, rich colors and a high Gesatschärfe. The sound is primarily dominated by the dialogue and the soundtrack and therefore remains overall rather unspectacular - but good.

Extras: While the DVD has no extras (apart from a digital copy of the film), the Blu-Ray has at least a little bonus material to offer. It starts off with just under seven minutes of cut scenes, which have a few character moments worth watching, but don't really add any depth to the proceedings and therefore aren't really lacking from the finished film.

The roundtable discussion between actors is more or less a short promotional making of, which is supplemented by three other very short featurettes (each 3 mins), which focus on the two main characters, as well as the author of the novel. The original trailer closes out the not-so-extensive bonus package.

Conclusion: Love & other drugs is quite a watchable mix of romantic drama, comedy and satire, where not all the components really want to fit together. The good lead actors alone make the film well worth watching. The Blu-ray is technically very well implemented, the somewhat meager bonus material, however, disappoints. Nevertheless, the bottom line is a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp