Reasons why Netflix's Hollywood drama 'Pain Hustlers' is mixed bag
When Hollywood's two globally popular, acclaimed artists join forces, we naturally expect something spectacular from start to finish. These expectations are further augmented when the director has a copious amount of experience under his belt. However, Pain Hustlers, starring Chris Evans and Emily Blunt and helmed by David Yates, has numerous high points but is undone by its ludicrous lows.
Read 'Pain Hustlers' plot first
Pain Hustlers, loosely inspired by real events, extracts its story from Evan Hughes's book Pain Hustlers (2022). It stars Blunt as Liza Drake, a down-on-her-luck single mother who accepts a job offer from Pete Brenner (Evans) in a moment of desperation at a pharmaceutical company. However, she engineers a criminal conspiracy by bribing doctors to prescribe their patients a highly addictive drug.
Positives: Blunt and Evans are sensational in film
If Pain Hustlers is watchable despite its problems, it's solely because it rests on the able, experienced, artistic shoulders of Blunt and Evans. Blunt is the film's soul and its driving force; she is both fierce and vulnerable, both shrewd and apologetic. Evans matches his rhythmic beat with her, and from early on, he engrossed me with the portrayal of a cocky, haughty man.
Positives: Documentary style helps it, gives gravitas
Pain Hustlers has several moments where it is gritty, intense, and tense, and these moments usually arise when the characters are engaged in conflicts and chaos. We empathize with Drake sometimes, but she's also a conniving culprit, and the premonition of "where will this go from here" is recurring. At the beginning and in between, PH leverages monochrome documentary shots to foreshadow its grimness.
Picks up unnerving true story as premise
I also find Pain Hustlers quite interesting because it will push viewers to head over to Hughes's book The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid StartUp and uncover the shocking crisis that had the United States by its throat not too long ago. Also, interestingly, this is Netflix's third pharmaceutical-centered project after Painkiller and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Negatives: Cannot maintain serious, sordid themes
Unfortunately, Pain Hustlers doesn't seem to try to maintain its serious nature throughout the drama, and after every few intense scenes, a lighter sequence comes along. This shakes the very foundation on which the story stands, and during these moments, we're forced to wonder, "If the film doesn't take itself too seriously, should we even be engaged in it?" It needed tighter, grittier execution.
Negatives: Ridiculously comical moments bog it down
Once PH settles comfortably onscreen and begins driving in the fourth gear, it awkwardly swerves tracks and chooses the path that must not be taken. Its party scenes go all-out and are ludicrous; we already get the idea after the first such event, but the scenes begin playing out frequently. If it is meant for comic relief, it has backfired terribly.
Supporting characters and other cast members are mostly wasted
Another problem that infests PH is it wastes much of its supporting cast members, specifically Catherine O'Hara, who plays Drake's mother. Other times, supporting characters are introduced but not fleshed out properly, so even when they die or suffer, there's not enough emotional heft for our hearts to beat for them. Some scenes and twists come out of nowhere, and the characters act absurdly.
Final word: We'd recommend checking it out once
I would call Pain Hustlers neither startlingly spectacular nor frustratingly terrible, but instead, it lies somewhere in between this spectrum. It is charged by Evans and Blunt and is mostly fast-paced but fails to grasp and turn on its own potential. Nonetheless, if you can look past these problems, I would recommend watching Pain Hustlers once. It arrived on the streamer on Friday.
