Review:
Pain & Gain is
entertaining, yes, but also stylistically vulgar. The film is about Daniel
Lugo, a personal trainer and amateur body builder, who aspires for more out of
life, but instead of working hard he decides to kidnap one of his wealthy
clients and force him to give up everything he owns. To do this, Lugo enlists
two of his bodybuilder friends Adrian Doorbal and Paul Doyle.
In its best moments Pain & Gain is
very entertaining and very funny, playing off the sheer hilarity of the
ridiculousness of this true story and the odd characters in it. But that said,
the film is not nearly as entertaining or funny as director Michael Bay seems
to think it is, which leaves it over-long and ultimately a little tiresome.
Its main problem comes from Bay’s
pacing and the story’s narrative structure. The first act shows Lugo in his
depressed, poverty stricken natural state, which sets the table for why he
would even aspire to such a crime in the first place. Bay also extensively uses
voiceover narration to divulge background and character drama in an attempt to
flesh out his characters to a greater extent than what the visuals offer, and
it works well enough. Bay tries to infuse the voiceover narration with comedy
as well. The second act features Lugo and company carrying out the crime and
living off their spoils. And the third act is their downfall – so, in many ways
this is structured a bit like a gangster film. The skeleton of the narrative
structure works well and features an involving story, but Bay seems to think
his material is brilliantly funny (and in moments, thanks to the fun
performances, it is) so he tries to pack in as many comedic beats as he can,
somewhat overloading scenes, resulting in the whole ridiculous tone becoming
tired during the latter half of the second act.
Suddenly, without the comedy
playing quite as well, the film starts to feel slow – because the narrative is
not structured as a comedy, but rather as a character based crime drama. Yet,
Bay wants the film to play as a comedy – specifically he wants the characters
to be complete idiots who do things so that the audience can laugh at them.
But, when the joke is not funny anymore where does that leave the narrative? Bay
does a great job with making everything funny and entertaining in the beginning,
but once the characters are set up and the narrative is in motion Bay’s pacing
just does not work anymore because the storytelling is not efficient enough. Again,
this is really a comedy, but it is structured and stylized as a crime drama and
this disconnect hurts the film in the second half.
Stylistically, Pain & Gain
sort of both embraces and denounces excess in American culture. It is odd
because Bay seems to want the audience to relate to his characters and even
feel sympathetic towards them, and he succeeds. The audience wants Lugo and
company to get away with their crimes and likes them, which is ludicrous
because the characters are completely unlikable. Yet Bay completely sets them up to looks like
total buffoons constantly, which undermines any connection that the viewer
might have formed with the characters. Lugo is the epitome of someone who wants
everything handed to them solely because they deserve it. He idolizes
characters from gangster films who take what they want (never learning the lesson
that they all lose in the end). He wants all the excesses that he sees around
him – which are a lot as the film takes place in Miami – but does not want to
earn anything; he just wants to have it now and to do that he must take it from
someone who already has it.
The narrative suggests that being
caught up in this sort of excess striving lifestyle does not work in the long run
(like gangster films, Lugo burns brightly but for a moment and pays a big price
for it). Yet, somewhat contradictory, Bay’s aesthetic style for the film is nothing
but excess, almost to a vulgar level. It seems to celebrate and revel in the
world of fast cars, hot women with big boobs, drugs, strip clubs, big houses on
the water (even the retired police detective lives right on the water), and so
on. It is as if Bay is championing Lugo and his aspirations, while also condemning
him (but only because of his stupidity in the manner by which he carried out
his crime). All these contradictions work against the film and the viewer’s
enjoyment of it.
However, despite the issues with
the film, Pain & Gain is at times very funny and quite enthralling. It just
asks that the viewer leave behind their own morality and fully embrace the
oversexed, bizarre, and comically ridiculous characters and world that Bay
presents.
Technical,
aesthetic & acting achievements: Michael Bay often makes mind-numbingly
noisy and blatantly stupid films – but, he also directs films with a lot of
energy and style. When it works, they make for an escapist spectacle entertainment.
Pain & Gain falls into that category (and it is probably his best film
since his first: Bad Boys –
the only other Bay film to cost under twenty-five million), but still feels
like it could have been better.
Composer Steve Jablonsky creates a decent
score for the film, but it does not really stand out. The best musical moments
come from the found music (like Gangsta’s Paradise). Visually,
however, the film is very compelling, inviting the viewer into a word of excess
juxtaposed with the crumbling sunbaked ghetto that surrounds it, looking on in
envy. Ben Seresin’s
cinematography and Jeffrey
Beecroft’s production design seem to make a clear distinction between the
world Lugo lives in and the one he aspires to be a part of, which in turn leads
to the audience actually getting behind him as a character. They see his world –
decrepit and sun saturated – and then see the nice part of Miami were his
victim lives and it is beautiful. In a crazy way, it sort of plays into the
class warfare that is quietly gathering steam in America (and around the
world).
The characters in the film are
slightly one dimensional, as Bay basically just parades them around to be
laughed at (which is probably why he added so much internal character stuff in
the voiceover narration). The performances, though, are very fun, with the
actors giving themselves completely over to the ridiculousness. Ken
Jeong is very funny in a cameo role. Rebel Wilson, Bar Paly, and especially Tony Shalhoub are all good in
support and bring some good humor with their performances. The leads, however,
make the film. Anthony Mackie
is fantastic. He plays Adrian in a much more grounded place, and yet is just as
funny as the other two. Dwayne
Johnson commits completely to his role as Paul, a cartoonish moron. He is
funny, and thus serves his role, but is completely void of real relatable character
moments. Mark Wahlberg, like
Mackie, is very good as Lugo. His character is the most relatable and is given
the most character moments, which he utilizes well. The audience should not
like him, and yet they sort of do.
Summary
& score: Pain & Gain is an extravaganza of ridiculousness – fun for
a while, but eventually it wears thin as it goes on too long. 6/10
