Better Living Through Chemistry on Blu-Ray

Category: Blu-ray's and DVD's

chemistryDoug Varney (Sam Rockwell) just took over the pharmacy from his father-in-law (Ken Howard). Doug has been a milquetoast father and husband and gone along with everything anyone tells him to do in his small suburban town. Then things change. In Better Living Through Chemistry, the message is to take charge of your own life – hopefully without chemicals.

 

Doug’s wife (Michelle Monaghan) is overbearing and condescending to him at home and in public. His son is going through a difficult puberty. His life basically is in the toilet. Then he meets a seductive customer. Elizabeth (Olivia Wilde) connects with him on many levels. She entices him to indulge in alcohol and drugs, and a hot affair. After seeing how much better he feels about life when he is mixing up his own drugs, he starts down a dangerous path.

 

By mixing – cutting – concoctions of different drugs, Doug and Elizabeth enjoy a tumultuous sexual affair and they both finally enjoy their lives. She is the wife of a very rich man (Ray Liotta) whom she says doesn’t pay any attention to her. She feels like a trophy wife. And Doug is not even a trophy husband. He is belittled at every turn. So, together they scheme to change their lives and run off together.

 

In the meantime, Doug is visited by a DEA agent who starts looking into his records and discovers there are pills missing. His inventory and his prescriptions don’t add up. Fearing he will be discovered he gets anxious. So what does he do? He mixes more drugs to help him through his anxiety.

 

The chemicals, aka drugs, turn Doug into the kind of man he wants to be. But can he still be this way without the influence of drugs and alcohol?

 

Jane Fonda appears in a brief cameo as herself. Sam Rockwell is wonderful as the straight-laced never-do-wrong pharmacist who discovers his wild side. Olivia Wilde is enticing as the seductress, and Michelle Monaghan plays the Doug’s wife with enough flair that viewers will love to hate her.

 

This is an entertaining little movie. It’s a diamond in the rough. Better Living Through Chemistry is not rated however it is inappropriate for young viewers. There are sex and drugs throughout the entire film.

 

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

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