Jamie Randall is good salesman with an infallible charm that make men want to be his friend, and women to bed him. Coasting on his good looks, he's a man looking to find his place in the world. In the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales, he feels the challenge to his skills until he's able to rep the new miracle drug Viagra.
Based on the non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy, director Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) also wrote the screenplay with Charles Randolph and Marshall Herskovitz. Set in the mid 90's Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is bouncing from job to job. His brother socially inept Josh (Josh Gad) just sold his Internet company for millions but his wife just kicked him out and he's staying with him. Landing a job with Pfizer he is being trained/mentored by field manager Bruce (Oliver Platt) His job is trying to rep Zoloft when Prozac is dominating the market. Bruce shows him how to use natural gifts by flirting and even sleeping with the women in the doctor's office to get his foot in the door. He even stoops to replacing all the Prozac samples in the office with Zoloft. His persistence gets Dr. Knight (Hank Azaria) to let him shadow him while seeing patients where he meets Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) who has come for a medication refill. While there believing Jamie is an intern, she has the doctor check out a spot on her breast much to Jamie's delight. However in the parking lot she discovers Jamie to be a drug salesman, she promptly whacks him. Thus beginning a relationship that he didn't quite expect.
Jamie always had a policy of loving and leaving women after he got what he wanted. Then here comes Maggie who just wants to use Jamie for her own purposes and not to get close or possessive. Of course this is the reverse psychology syndrome where suddenly he can't get enough of her and she keeps him at a distance when they are not in bed. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway physically and bravely expose themselves on screen but the scenes are not salacious or awkward. The reason why Maggie is keeping Jamie at a distance is that she has symptoms of early onset Parkinson's. Maggie can not think of committing to anything long term and thus save someone of having to care for her. You believe in their relationship because Maggie's character is so defiant in the face of her disease. She's angry, strong, vulnerable, and moving. Meanwhile Jamie's job explodes with the introduction of Viagra. The film veers off into the wild wacky world of that pop culture place in time offering the humorous parts of the film to counter the seriousness of Jamie, Maggie and her illness. While this movie is sort about the drugs that are supposed to make us better, it's really about the one drug that we all want...Love.
(Review by reesa)
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