Jake plays a sexy, hot shot pharmaceutical sales rep in the 90s when the world was on the verge of Viagra. He's assigned the Ohio River Valley as his territory although the cars seem to have Pennsylvania license plates. Does Pittsburgh qualify as Ohio River Valley? Whatever, Jake wants to get to the promised land of Chicago and to get there he has to convince Dr. Hank Azaria to switch from Prosac to Xanax. Let's see a show of hands of who thinks he'll get offered Chicago in the 3rd act and turn it down for Anne? See? We haven't even met Anne yet and we already know what will happen. Jake basically bribes Dr. Hank to let him shadow him while he sees patients. All it takes is $1,000 for Dr. Hank to betray his patients' trust and commit a serious ethical violation, but this is never explored. Jake follows Dr. Hank into an examination of Anne Hathaway which involves the first of many displays of her mammories. Jake is instantly smitten with Anne, Anne smacks him over the head when she finds out he's a drug rep and not a doctor, they have coffee and fuck on the floor. Anne tries to keep it just about sex because she has early onset Parkinson's. Jake is fine with that since he doesn't yet appreciate the seriousness of her disease, blah, blah, blah, he falls in love. They both try to resist it, Anne pushes Jake away, Jake goes through some soul searching, has a 3-way with two beautiful women, realizes that he really loves Anne, and they end up together because love is stronger than Parkinson's, or something.
Along the way, we meet Jake's brother/sidekick, a fat slob who got rich from some software thingy. Why must all handsome leading men have fat slobs as best friends? In the old days, Cary Grant's best friend was the fey and groomed Tony Randall, now it's Zach Galifanikis, or at least it would have been if Zach hadn't become a star in his own right first. Fat slob is the new closeted gay.
Since Zach was unavailable, the role was played by some incredibly unattractive guy. I could tell you who it was if I cared enough to look it up. He was ugly and disgusting and had no redeeming qualities. In one scene that was supposed to be funny, Jake catches fat brother whacking off to a video of Jake and Anne having sex. Strange, sick and gross. Not funny. Nobody laughed.
BTW, I'm being totally unfair to Zach Galifanikis. I think he's funny and sexy in his own way. He would have been a huge asset to this movie.
The movie also wastes George Segal and Jill Clayburgh in her last roll. They play Jake's parents in one pointless scene. I guess the producers thought George and Jill would look really classy in the trailer.
The big problem with this movie is it can't decide what it is. Is it a Jerry Maguireish tale of a sexy, ambitious, money-crazy guy who discovers what's important in life when he meets the right girl, with the added twist that the girl is sick? Is is a hard-hitting drama about the tough choices we must make when a love one is diagnosed with an incurable disease (if so, I could tell them a thing or two)? Is is Cinemax after dark? The one thing that saves it from being a R-rated Lifetime disease-of-the-week movie is Anne Hathaway's strong performance. There is never a false note with her. She has an amazing ability to parade around naked, straddling Jake at the drop of a hat and still come off as a lady. Sharon Stone should take notes. I love Jake. He's totally charming and his body is beyond words. He and Anne are great together and should make a movie every year. Just not this one.
