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This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.In the past fifteen years, David Yates has made eight movies—seven of which were in the Harry Potter franchise. Yates followed what filmmakers like Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, and Mike Newell had set up, creating a satisfying conclusion to the tale of The Boy Who Lived, and the less-than-remarkable Fantastic Beasts series. A common refrain in Pain Hustlers, Yates’ first non-Harry Potter film since 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan, is the idea of a person selling what’s in their bag—basically meaning that you sell what you know. If you can get by on reading people, that’s a good way to get ahead, or maybe you can sell Avon or knives door-to-door. But if Pain Hustlers proves anything about Yates, it’s that his bag absolutely does not contain the ability to make his first post-Harry Potter film work.
Based loosely on the book of the same name written by Evan Hughes and with a screenplay by Wells Tower, Pain Hustlers centers around a pharmaceutical company in Florida on its way to bankruptcy. That is, until they hire Liza Drake, played by Emily Blunt. Liza has had a rough go of it, living in her sister’s garage with her mom (Catherine O’Hara) and her daughter Phoebe (Chloe Coleman). But once she’s kicked out of the garage and loses her job as a stripper, she calls up Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), a pharma sales representative she met at the club, who offers her a job at his failing company, Zanna Pharmaceuticals.
Liza’s ability to read people leads her to turn doctors onto Zanna’s new cancer drug, Lonafen, and away from old scripts. As we see with her power over Dr. Lydell (Brian d’Arcy James), her influence, attention, and bribes turns him from a balding, PT Cruiser-driving doctor operating in a strip mall into a sought-after prescriber of Lonafen. In just a few short months, Zanna, run by billionaire CEO Dr. Jack Neel (Andy García) has become a massive success and, as we know from these types of movies, can only lead to more greed and the inevitable downfall.
‘Pain Hustlers’ Wishes It Were ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Yates frames Pain Hustlers almost like a more neutered version of The Wolf of Wall Street like when Liza and Pete hire former strippers to turn more doctors onto Lonafen. However, the film’s sole example of the “party” mentality of this career is extremely tame from the team jumping into the pool with their clothes on (!) to one guy pooping in a sink (!!!). It’s so extreme, so edgy, what a crazy time! Yates also doesn’t seem to know what approach to take with this story, sporadically adding in faux interviews with our cast as if they’re part of some unstated documentary about this period that is little more than a cheap way of dispensing exposition. If that’s not enough, Blunt consistently provides an unnecessary narration throughout that primarily explains what the viewer can clearly see.
It’s also clear that Pain Hustlers doesn’t know exactly what type of tone it wants to attempt. It partially wants to be the type of crime dramedy that The Wolf of Wall Street was, but the silliness and over-the-top nature of O’Hara’s Jackie and García’s Jack seems to imply the remnants of a much broader comedy. But this is also a film that wants to prioritize the greed and selfishness that could lead people to choose to profit off dangerous medicine, patient’s deaths be damned—while also having us still care for the lead character that caused these issues in the first place. We’re told Liza is a good person, but really, what in the film actually reflects that? Pain Hustlers seems to want to be fun, but also make a biting criticism of the pharmaceutical world, and the wishy-washy nature of the tone makes this critique toothless.
At the very least, Tower does a decent job with these fictional characters based on somewhat true events—particularly Blunt’s Liza. While Pain Hustlers is trying to take down the major corporations that helped cause the opioid crisis (something that far better movies and TV shows have already done), Pain Hustlers almost works better as a condemnation of our economic system, as medical bills for life-changing operations can’t be paid and families are trapped living in apartments, it’s no wonder someone like Liza would go to the lengths she does simply to get by. Liza is a strong personification of this desperation, and Blunt does a solid job of bringing these themes to the forefront, while also finally having an opportunity to play a role that lives a bit more in the gray.
Chris Evans Is Wasted in ‘Pain Hustlers’
But the same can’t be said about the rest of the cast. Evans is little more than the douchebag that sets this all in motion and lets greed take over when Liza starts to see the error of their ways. It’s an unfortunate waste of Evans, even though he’s been great at playing scummy creeps in the past. García seems to be having fun in a slightly off-the-rails performance, and while O’Hara is good as always, her character gets lost as the story starts to pick up steam.
We’ve had plenty of films that have stated that greed, for lack of a better word, is good, and Pain Hustlers—with its sights set on the pharmaceutical companies behind the opioid crisis—doesn’t add anything new to that conversation. Yates makes Pain Hustlers part-rowdy dramedy, part-half-assed takedown, and entirely an underwhelming film that attempts to make apparent and bland points. After fifteen years in the Harry Potter trenches, Yates still isn’t able to find the magic that can make this compelling or worthwhile.
Rating: C-
The Big Picture
- Pain Hustlers attempts to combine elements of a crime dramedy with a biting critique of the pharmaceutical industry, but its wishy-washy tone makes its message toothless.
- Emily Blunt delivers a solid and nuanced performance as the lead character, Liza, who personifies the desperation of individuals trapped by the flawed economic system.
- Despite its attempt to take down major corporations involved in the opioid crisis, Pain Hustlers fails to add anything new to the conversation about greed. Yates’ direction falls short of making the film compelling or worthwhile.
Pain Hustlers had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It comes to select theaters on October 20, and debuts on Netflix on October 27.
