TIFF 2023: Pain Hustlers Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

As dramatized Hollywood exposes go, the pharmaceutical industry seems like the next logical choice to go next. Instead of taking a comedic approach to highlight the ridiculousness of whatever or whoever it was skewering, Pain Hustlers better highlights the consequences of the same kind of ridiculousness in its sad but true story. Based on journalist Evan Hughes’ book of the same name, the film shows the lengths one is willing to go to achieve success, ritegardless of the cost. Viewed through the lens of the pharmaceutical industry and the ongoing opioid epidemic, that cost is a dire one. Putting profits over lives, the story shows the other side of things from the perspective of those who contributed to it. While its characters may be despicable, the rollercoaster of it all was sometimes uncomfortable at times but still a blast to watch. Ultimately, quick-witted dialog and excellent performances from Emily Blunt and a wacky Chris Evans go a long way in making that happen. 

Pain Hustlers is centered around Eliza Drake (Blunt), a dancer and single-mother struggling to support her daughter Phoebe (Chloe Coleman). However, her fortunes appeared to change upon meeting Pete Brenner (Evans), a sleazy sales rep for a startup pharmaceutical company that was approaching bankruptcy. Seeing her potential, he offered her a job as rep at his company, tasked to push a new drug to offer pain relief to cancer patients. Out of her element, it did not start off well for her until she eventually figured it out and, in the process, crafting the formula to get other doctors to prescribe the medication. Quickly escalating from there, she and Brenner formed a team to garner the same results across the country. Enamored by the success she achieved over a short period of time; she could finally provide her daughter the life she deserved. So enamored, she was perhaps blind to the cost of her success. Having the moment of realization where she sees what was really going on, it merely became the beginning of the end as she threatened to bring the whole operation down. A stark contrast in tone, the truth got uncomfortable. 

The best part of the film was of course Blunt and Evans as Drake and Brenner. Their collective star power is exactly what it needs to truly bring these characters to life. Blunt gets to show more as the heart of the film and an analog for audiences. Her character arc was a highlight as she is taken on a rollercoaster and becomes consumed by it while still having the presence of mind to realize what was really going on. Evans’ Brenner was an over-the-top representation of the pharmaceutical industry but his effortless charm and charisma made him a likeable one. Meanwhile, their chemistry was magnetic.

*still courtesy of Netflix*

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.