R | 2h 2m | Drama, Comedy | October 27, 2023
Netflix’s “Pain Hustlers” scored low with critics on “Rotten Tomatoes.” However, my number-one rule of movie inferiority is a film that allows my subconscious to fish out my phone and check the time. “Pain Hustlers” will hold your attention.
I tend to approach film criticism from more of a utilitarian standpoint; more of a “Moneyball,” sabermetrics approach. Does it hold your attention? Yes? Then it’s serviceable entertainment—I don’t care a whole lot about film-school type technique griping. Does it tell a good story? Do you want to run to the bathroom but stay in your seat because you don’t want to miss anything? In this day and age where quality is declining everywhere you look, serviceable entertainment is better than technically-correct-but-boring. Let’s not be too hasty and throw the baby out with the bathwater; a fun watch is a good watch.
That said, one problem is that, while the film’s topic is interesting and the stars (especially Emily Blunt) have charisma, most Netflix movies automatically have a sort of low-rent, low-production-value, and whiff of cheap perfume about them. They’re made for the little screen; they don’t feel like a legit movie.
And ultimately, while I mostly agree with the critics—it’s for different reasons. I found the film entertaining, but, unfortunately, morally bereft. When, according to Harvard’s School of Public Health, as of 2022, more than 600,000 people in the United States and Canada have died from opioid overdoses since 1999, holding drug companies accountable really should have been the primary focus; it needed to be more of an indictment of drug companies’ questionable practices (using the afflictions of real-life people to fund excess and luxury) and American hubris.
What Goes On
Based loosely on Evan Hughes’s “The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup,” “Pain Hustlers” protagonist, Liza Drake (Emily Blunt), is a broke and divorced single mom with a deadbeat ex-husband. Liza dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter Phoebe (Chloe Coleman) who suffers from seizures, the treatment of which Liza cannot afford.
Recently banished from couch-surfing in her sister’s garage, Liza does a brief stint as a stripper. Her first night onstage, she ignores the pole and cozies up at the bar with one Pete Brenner (Chris Evans).
He’s a heavily New-Yawk-accent-sprewing, snake-oil-y drug rep. After noting how talented Liza is at charming him out of his money (she pegs his job description with a cursory Sherlock Holmesian glance), he immediately offers her a job in his marketing department, at swiftly-tanking Zanna Therapeutics. Falsifying her resume, and knowing that his boss, Dr. Neel (Andy Garcia), won’t be able to look past Liza’s shapely gams, she’s hired immediately.
What It Is
Zanna Therapeutics is a fictionalized version of Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company that sold a spray version of Fentanyl, the highly addictive opioid. The company was eventually taken down for lying about the drug’s effects and for paying doctors to promote the product.
What the film does well, albeit briefly, is show how pharmaceutical companies manipulate the system by doing M.D. reconnaissance and then paying small-town doctors to, basically, become drug pushers, touting their particular drug and delivery system as the painkiller of choice. The physician writes the script based on the company and FDA recommendations. The company reports a protocol that economically enhances its bottom line, but (surprise, surprise) puts patients at risk. Finally, the company leaves everything to the physician and then claims ignorance.
Erin Brockovich
“Pain Hustlers” has much in common with Julia Roberts’s “Erin Brockovich,” in that Pete Brenner and Liza, using Liza as a template, put together a sales team of attractive-but-down-on-their-luck single mom female reps with flexible morals born of desperation. They quickly fall in line, hocking the company’s miracle pain medication, Lonafen, with flash and false promises, which are mostly played for laughs.
And so, as mentioned at the outset, in that sense, “Pain Hustlers” is too cutesy for a film that should smack you upside the head, take no prisoners, and ask forgiveness later. The topic is inherently too sad to make a comedy out of. I mean, you can, but then you have to commit and go all out. The right thing to do would be to tell this story so that the audience comes away with some pain as motivation to do some reflection, some looking within, to see how we all participated in this modern tragedy.
Instead, it relies on Blunt’s star power to gloss over the gaps, such as Liza appearing largely oblivious to the issues Lonafen causes. Sure, it’s known that drug dealers don’t want to know what’s happening with the product they’re selling, as long as it’s in demand. And while—just like Liza herself—Blunt nearly pulls it off, eventually, the problems catch up to her.
But that bit of contriteness at the end is more like Martha Stewart doing jail time and bouncing back better than ever. What did Martha do? Didn’t pay her taxes or something? Turned a blind eye to taxes? Liza’s turning a blind eye resulted in dead people.
However, “Pain Hustlers” is still quite an entertaining watch.
‘Pain Hustlers’
Director: David Yates
Starring: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara, Chloe Coleman
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 27, 2023
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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