“1996” is the first thing you see on the screen at the start of Love and Other Drugs. The first thing you hear is Two Princes by Spin Doctors. I immediately thought to myself, “Why?” Two Princes hit the height of its popularity a couple of years earlier was so overplayed that by 1996 no one could stand it. True story: It wasn’t until 2005 that I was able to listen to Two Princes again without rolling my eyes. But here is Jake Gyllenhaal, dancing away to Two Princes in this small electronics store where he works.

It took awhile for me to figure out why Love and Other Drugs takes place in 1996 instead of 2010. Best Buy has replaced the small electronics store, but it’s basically the same place. Pharmaceutical companies are still pumping out new and improved antidepressants. There’s still no cure for Parkinson’s. Love interests that don’t want relationships still work in coffee shops. Why 1996? It wasn’t until about halfway through Love and Other Drugs that I got my answer, Viagra.

When Viagra first comes up in Love and Other Drugs, it’s still in development at Pfizer and Jake Gyllenhaal, now a struggling Pfizer sales rep, has a serious hard-on to sell it. I thought it was going to be a one-off joke, similar to his showing off a Star-Tac earlier while he was working at the electronics store. But the second half of the movie largely becomes the Viagra movie. Every character gets caught up in the Viagra tidal wave. Jake Gyllenhaal and girlfriend Anne Hathaway cheer when it’s mentioned on Conan, doctors who previously snubbed Gyllenhaal beg him for hookups, and the little blue pill powers a crazy pharma-sex party that would have probably sent all my college friends into pharmaceuticals if Love and Other Drugs was released in when it takes place. There’s even a great “when Viagra goes wrong” bit that was one of the funniest parts of the movie.

Josh Gad plays Jake Gyllenhaal’s brother in Love and Other Drugs. If Jesse Eisenberg is the poor man’s Michael Cera, Josh Gad is the poor man’s Jack Black. If they make a sequel to Year One and can’t get Cera and Black, I think it would be kind of awesome if they got Gad and Eisenberg. I would definitely go see Year Two if it starred the poor man’s Michael Cera and the poor man’s Jack Black. That might be the only way I’d go see Year Two.

Love and Other Drugs has been getting a lot of press for both Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway having partial nude scenes in the movie. When Anne Hathaway’s bare breast first makes an appearance during a visit with Dr. Hank Azaria (not using his Dr. Nick voice), I thought “That wasn’t that big a deal. That was onscreen, what, five seconds?” I spoke (or thought in this case) too soon. Anne Hathaway’s breasts are in this movie more than Hank Azaria or Oliver Platt. Anne Hathaway’s breasts should have received third billing in the credits under Gyllenhaal and Hathaway. I hear they may be nominated for a Supporting Actress award this year.

Jake Gyllenhaal spends a lot of time disrobed as well in Love and Other Drugs. They are many shots of Gyllenbuutt and when he’s walking around in his underwear, I said out loud “Gyllenbaalls.”

I walked away liking Love and Other Drugs much more than I thought I would. If you’re looking for a good romantic comedy, try this one. It’s not cheesy, it will fulfill any questions you had about Anne Hathaway’s nipples, and you’ll get see the Gyllenbaalls you can take.
 
And if you really like Love and Other Drugs, Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman have a clone of it coming out soon called No Strings Attached. The preview was so much like Love and Other Drugs that I thought Love and Other Drugs repeated a joke during the movie and realized no, a very similar joke was in the No Strings Attached preview.