Marchands de douleur

Charasmetic leads. Though hard to watch Captain America as an ass#ole. There have been so many shows recently about the OxyContin epidemic. This one suffers because it's at the end of the line. At least it's not an 8 part series that takes forever to tell the same story. Catherine O'Hara in a non comedic role is a joy to watch., Andy Garcia ... used to be an A class actor. Seems a bit desperate to have taken on this role. Still ... it's an important lesson. The role of big chemical companies in modern society and how they prey on the vulnerable is highlighted. Which is a good thing. Not that this will change anything.

I found the movie to be very watchable & more realistic than given credit for in other reviews. It's easy to dislike a character whose behavior is unprincipled & likely to harm others, as in the case of all the main players in this film. But in doing so, you ignore the fact that people are complex, usually not all good or all bad. Circumstances can dictate behavior & should be taken into account. Liza Drake wasn't a bad person. She was a smart, desperate person looking for a way out of her dead end job & seized an opportunity that looked promising initially. Pete was more comfortable behaving unscrupulously. I think both Emily Blunt & Chris Evans brought their characters to life in a realistic way. I also feel like Liza Drake was a good mother. The reviewer who was offended by Liza's response to her daughter's fire starting was a minor incident in the story. I found the movie to be quite interesting, as well as a decent portrayal of the pharmaceutical industry. You can't ignore the headlines of the last several years.

Carried by a typically strong Blunt performance, Pain Hustlers is both watchable and eye-opening, even though its dramatic impulses do kind of cancel each other out.

Directed by David Yates, who has spent most of the last two decades helming "Harry Potter" movies and prequels and might not be the best fit for this material, Pain Hustlers aims to be a fast-paced, raucous, blunt and slick work a la "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Big Short," but winds up caught between the worlds of breezy satire and hard truth. Emily Blunt and Chris Evans are fabulous but you'll be hard-pressed to remember anything else by the time the credits are done rolling.

But the movie does succeed in unpacking the raw grift and exploitation of the pharma sales business, and the wider dysfunction of the American health care and legal systems that allows it to go unchecked. So a thumbs up on that part.

My Rating: 6.5/10.

Give me Emily Blunt and Chris Evans plus an interesting story, I'd probably watch it!

Is this film going to change cinema forever? No.

Is it a solid film, with good comedy, multi layered story, interesting characters? Yes 100%

Don't go into this film thinking its going to be a serious drama about pharmaceutical companies and the opioid crisis. You can easily tell that by the trailer. This is much more in the vein of a "Wolf of Wall Street" type of film, although not to the same level of quality of that film.

Emily Blunt is fantastic! I mean when is she not fantastic, its so easy to under appreciate great actors not doing a "cashing in a pay check" kind of performance. Which this so easily could have been. Blunt, in a strange way, gave the film a bit of heart and something to balance against the wild drug company side of the story. Even though her character is still not a great person overall, you can still feel empathy when needed.

Chris Evans is also great and yet again getting to do stuff without wearing a costume! He is a great actor but doesn't always get to show that, I hope this gets him more work with more quality directors in the future.

Overall I enjoyed the film, I knew what I was getting myself into and it didn't disappoint in the slightest. Funny, interesting, sad and has a decent ending. Its definitely a film best suited to a streaming service, you aren't missing out on the cinema experience for this. 70% out of 100!

Considering there are now more than 75 reviews on the movie, I'll keep it brief.

Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara and all the actors turn in strong performances. It's really their acting that made the story engaging and effective. Especially considering the big pharma genre of drama movies has been milked a lot lately. Blunt is a stand-out here, bringing emotion to every scene she's in.

You'll get high drama, a little suspense, a few laughs and feel a connection with at least one of the main characters. You will likely also feel some anger... and compassion for Emily Blunt's character and her daughter.

It's a bit longer than I felt it should've been but it will keep you interested to see how it all comes to a head at the end. If you've got a couple hours and are looking for a dramatic story about the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, this movie is worth the watch. A move has to be almost life-changing for me to rate it 8, 9, or10, but in my book, this one is a solid 7.