Year of Release: 2023
Director: David Yates
Starring: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara, Chloe Coleman, Brian d'Arcy James, Jay Duplass, Amit Shah, Valerie LeBlanc, Aubrey Dollar, Alex Klein, Britt Rentschler, Michael Kosta
Genre: Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Another release from Netflix, "Pain Hustlers" is the latest directorial endeavor from David Yates, whose name has become permanently associated with the "Harry Potter" universe, courtesy of the fact he directed the final 4 films of that saga, alongside the 3 more recent films of the "Fantastic Beasts" saga (in between those two sagas he found the time to direct the truly terrible "Tarzan" with Alexander Skarsgaard and Margot Robbie). The film which is an adaptation of the book by Evan Hughes with the same title, features a script by Wells Tower, and focuses its narrative on Liza Drake, whom we first encounter working as an exotic dancer in order to make ends meet for herself and her daughter Phoebe (who experiences epileptic seizures on occasion due to a congenital brain issue). While at the club where she performs, she meets Pete Brenner, who works for a pharmaceutical start up. They strike a conversation and she demonstrates her salesperson capabilities, which impresses Pete enough for him to share his card with her and suggest the possibility of a job for her. Liza's life suffers another setback when her living arrangements change, since her sister expels her out of her garage, and Liza finds herself living in a motel. She decides to reach out to Pete, and beg for a job. Unbeknownst to her however, Pete's employer Zanna, is also struggling financially, and no hiring is actually in place. The company is desperately trying to find investors, and in the spur of a moment, and while doing a pitch for a potential investor, Pete rewrites Liza's resume and introduces her as someone with a degree in biochemistry. Pete gives her 5 days to convince a physician to prescribe their drug, Lonafen. He offers a risible baseline salary, but lures Liza with the promise of sales commissions. Liza goes through the list of doctor prospects very quickly, without getting a single one to adopt the drug. At the last moment however, one of the doctor is convinced by her arguments, and prescribes the drug. This starts a momentum for Liza who soon hires a team of sales reps to push the drug across the regional market. And while the company starts to suddenly bring money and dominate that market, Liza starts noticing certain things that are not correct at all.
The opioid crisis is a topic ripe for an interesting feature film, which sadly "Pain Hustlers" is not that feature. The film tries, unsuccessfully one should say, to emulate the environment and energy Martin Scorsese brought to life in "The Wolf of Wall Street". However the way David Yates has chosen to illustrate the narrative, is both anemic and also arid when it comes to giving any of the lead characters something substantial to actually do and be. Liza, the protagonist, we progressively learn during the narrative that she's been divorced and has had a prior arrest, something we only uncover much later in the film, and it's something casually discussed, but never really addressed again. We also know she has a troubled relationship with her mother and sister, but those relationships are briefly illustrated and quickly tossed aside (the fact that the only somewhat healthy relationship Liza is able to maintain is with her daughter is never really discussed). The script is so worried in making a big statement about the maladies and greed of the pharmaceutical industry, that it forgets that characters have to actually mean something, have motivations beyond showing up on screen and utter a few lines. It's a film that touches on quite a few clichés, but does so without reinterpreting them or presenting them in a new light (the single mother who works in a strip club to make ends meet for herself and her daughter, isn't that also Andrew Bergman's "Striptease" premise which features Demi Moore and Robert Patrick, and came out in 1996). Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara, Brian d'Arcy James, Jay Duplass are all talented performers who sadly have very little to do in this tale of ambition, greed and conspiracy. Their characters have the dimension of a cue card, including the ambitious corporate man who doesn't want to settle down and is cutthroat in his dealings with others, the mother constantly pursuing crazy schemes, the eccentric CEO, etc. Emily Blunt for all her investment in the role, also lacks both the spunk and the beaten by life aspect that this role needed (this role needed someone with the energy of Charlize Theron). The production team is not particularly memorable either, with just a serviceable cinematography from George Richmond, the same going for the score from James Newton Howard, Cliff Lanning and Michael Dean Parsons. It's not a disaster of a film, it's just not a particularly interesting one.
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