Love and Other Drugs got panned by critics and was a flop because it portrays the pharmaceutical industry in a negative light, simple as that. The reality is that this movie was a lot better than I expected.

Basically the film’s problem is that it is uneven narratively.  In the beginning the film is a really enjoyable skewering of big pharma (complete with a good deal of anti-prescription-drug rhetoric) and a rather funny portrayal Jake Gillenhall’s character as a smart but bored and women-crazed young guy who is not sure what to do with his life. Many sexual escapades with Anna Hathaway are also featured, and Anne Hathaway’s breasts are featured so prominently they should have gotten separate billing. There are actually some pretty good laughs in this first part, which is saying something considering that 90% of modern comedies don’t make me laugh at all.

But then the movie starts to loose its way a bit. It begins to laps a bit into a Sunday night affliction movie (a good one, perhaps, but still …). The narrative starts to fragment – there’s the affliction, the love story, Gillenhall’s personal torment, the sex-crazed doctor, the sex crazed brother, the jealous ex-marine sales dude, and all these different storylines start pulling in different directions. But in the end the film pulls the main storyline together and delivers a pretty moving and well-done climax scene, and I left the film feeling pretty satisfied. I thought Gillenhall was really good in his role, and Hathaway was solid in hers.

As for the brother doing a Seth Rogan imitation (this is what critics said), I don’t see it. The brother is funnier and more interesting (and a better actor) than Seth Rogan ever was or ever will be.

I would ignore the critics and give this film a chance. It’s actually not bad at all.