Happy New Year everyone! Onwards and upwards for 2011 as my colleague Paul would say! I hope you’re hangover has now officially gone, since it is Sunday 2nd Jan. My xmas was very pleasant; I eat healthy on Xmas day, didn’t over-indulge or watch any rubbish T.V. either (as I was playing on my new Dell laptop from Santa)! :D
As you all know, Xmas is the time when big blockbusters are released (this year we had Meet the Little Fockers or whatever its called, for example) plus, you also get the inevitable rom com (I remember one Boxing Day going to see the dire ’Sweet Home Alabama’ ) . This years ‘rom com’ was ’Love and Other Drugs’. The trailer advertised it as being an (unfunny) slapstick film in which sleazy pretty boy Jake Gyllenhaal met his match with the equally sleazy and cocky Anne Hathaway but – big twist - the relationship is doomed when it turns out that Anne has a secret in that she is not well. So what’s going to happen to their relationship?
This put me off seeing the film as the trailer was targeted at the teenage – early 20′s audience and made it look very uninspiring. However, I went to see it as Anne Hathaway is a very interesting and versatile actress which was the only reason why I would pay money to see it. So, I saw it yesterday with a friend of mine and – to my surprise - it was really good. What a shame that the film was marketed in such a poor way. This film is actually a deep romantic drama – not comedy – about what happens to 2 people who try to embark in a relationship when one has Parkinson’s Disease, plus the characters are complex and well developed. Admittedly it does go a bit Hollywood at the end, but, ultimately, it has been made for the late 20′s to mid 30′s audience.
Why on earth was it marketed in this way? I imagine that the only answer can be because its holiday time and lots of teenagers are bored, so they would more than likely pick the easy lightweight and fluffy rom com option over Peter Weir’s hardcore Colin Farrell epic…