In a movie about erectile dysfunction and terminal illness, you don't expect subtlety. Nonetheless, in his adaptation of Jamie Reidy's Hard Sell: the Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, Ed Zwick mixes smarm and sentimentality. Jake Gyllenhaal's cocky Jamie starts out as a salesman in an electronics store, and in between selling gullible customers shoddy products, he shtups the female help. This leads to an untidy dismissal and a new job selling Pfizer drugs that takes off when the little blue pill is marketed. Along the way, he bonds with a sleazy doctor (Hank Azaria), and they seem like a couple of funny guys who just happen to be exploiting human misery — kind of like Aaron Eckhart's character in Thank You for Smoking. Anne Hathaway sheds her nice-girl image (along with her clothes) as Jamie's girlfriend, Maggie, providing Jamie with self-sacrificing moments when she starts ailing.
