Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall in "Love and other drugs" (2010)"In the romantic comedy, which opens Nov. 24, Jake Gyllenhaal goes to great lengths to sell pharmaceuticals, including sleeping with a medical office receptionist, stealing a competitor's samples and lining up dates for doctors. His career gets a boost when he begins to sell Viagra, Pfizer's famous blue pill.
The movie, directed by Ed Zwick ("Glory," TV's "Thirtysomething"), is based on a memoir by Jamie Reidy called "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman."
Mr. Zwick said the love story in the movie is invented, but that the setting is based on fact. The filmmaker said he consulted doctors and pharmaceutical salespeople to get the details right.
"Love & Other Drugs" takes place in the 1990s, around the time that the Food and Drug Administration both approved Viagra and relaxed policies on advertising to consumers. "Suddenly the amount of money spent in drug advertising, and the amount made in sales, skyrocketed," Mr. Zwick said.
In the film, sales reps discuss pushing products for unapproved, or off-label, uses. In 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to improperly marketing its products and agreed to pay a $2.3 billion penalty. "Some of those abuses are detailed in the movie," Mr. Zwick said.
A Pfizer spokesperson said that the company hadn't viewed "Love & Other Drugs" and therefore couldn't comment on its content. "That said, we do not condone the sales practices portrayed in the movie trailer," the spokesperson said. "They do not conform to our policies and procedures, which hold our employees to high ethical standards." Source: online.wsj.com
Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal as Grace Cahill and Tommy Cahill in "Brothers" (2009)
Natalie Portman as Emilia Greenleaf in "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" (2009)
"Based on the novel by Ayelet Waldman, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits casts Natalie Portman as Emelia Greenleaf - a successful thirtysomething attorney who attempts to cope with a staggering personal loss while also attempting to mend her fractured relationship with her precocious stepson (Charlie Tahan's William). Filmmaker Don Roos does a consistently superb job of adapting Waldman's book for the big screen, yet there's little doubt that the writer/director's reliance on flashbacks initially wreaks a fair amount of havoc on the movie's momentum. 
It's not until the backstory has been dealt with that Love and Other Impossible Pursuits really gets going, with Portman's affecting and downright compelling performance ensuring that Emelia inevitably becomes an undeniably sympathetic figure - which, given the character's prickly demeanor at the outset, is certainly no small feat". Source: reelfilm.com
