A bit of girly star-gazing

I know people are very 'sniffy' about chick flicks - I even know a book shop where they'd rather not stock the genre in book form at all, but I tell you what, a little bit of silly romantic comedy can really cure the January blues.

Having an evening to kill, Daughter and I took advantage of the man-free time and went to see Love and Other Drugs last night.

As is often the case, the trailer doesn't do justice to this film. It's much better than it appears, funnier and less cheesy. Of course it's not an intelligent commentary on society's ills, but at the same time, it's not totally empty-headed romantic nonsense either.

Briefly the film is about a successful pharmaceutical salesman who falls for a girl with an incurable illness. Sounds rather bad, doesn't it? And I'll let you guess whether there is a happy ending or not...

But, but. Both Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal give strong performances, as the 'will they, won't they' couple. The supporting cast are good too, I especially liked Oliver Platt as Jake Gyllenhaal's 'mentor', as the older, cynical salesman.

Oliver Platt

The film is based on Jamie Reidy's memoir 'Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman', a book I haven't read. This may be the reason why I liked it so much, since usually if I love the book I hate the film. I might seek the book out, especially if it is a true memoir.

Both Daughter and I came away from the cinema with not so small crushes on Jake Gyllenhaal, though Daughter pointed out, 'He's far too young for you, anyway.' I didn't want to mention the word cougar...