Pain & Gain

Year: 2013
Genre: Drama
Directed: Michael Bay
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Bar Paly, Rebel Wilson, Ken Jeong, Michael Rispoli, Keili Lefkovitz
Production: Paramount Pictures

Is it possible that while being saturated with the familiar trappings of previous efforts, Pain & Gain (2013) might just be Michael Bay’s best film? Well it’s at least his smartest film to date. The grabbed-from-the-headlines story, the borderline goofy characters, the fast cars, gorgeous women and buff men when combined make a potent satire about the American dream and what it means to a certain kind of person. Yes I dare say, I think we have underestimated the much maligned director who gave us Armageddon (1998), The Rock (1996), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the Transformers trilogy (2007-2011). He attempted to make something more and partially succeeded!

Pain & Gain follows the exploits of three singularly desperate body builders. The leader of the muscle-bound group Daniel (Mark Wahlberg) has seen one too many get-rich-quick how-to videos and is convinced he has the perfect plan. Part one: kidnap a wealthy but vulgar Miami business man (Tony Shaloub), Part two: force him to hand over his assets to him, part three: kill him. Problem is Daniel needs help so he recruits fitness partner Adrian (Anthony Mackie) and new fish to the gym Paul (Dwayne Johnson) a born again Christian with a cocaine problem.

 Daniel and his coconspirators feel they deserve the money and feel they are the modern-day Robin Hoods of the sun State. They even plot another heist, stealing from another supposed bad man based on said man’s behavior towards them. They reason that since he’s a pornographer, no one would have a problem with them stealing his money. The fact that both men they bring harm to are self-made millionaires holds no weight for these muscle-bound jocks. They’re bad people by virtue of their personality while Daniel and his buddies deserve riches because they’re stronger and better looking.



Why can't I be a millionaire too!

Michael Bay’s characters act like petulant children who didn’t get the present they wanted for Christmas. It’s the cognitive dissonance between deserving and earning that the main characters in this movie have a problem with. Like spoiled children they think thinking it just makes it so, not bothering with the details. With the notion of the American dream embedded in their mind, they can’t help but feel shafted because things haven’t worked out for them yet everyone from their boss to the customers at their gym seem to have it good. All they can do to stop from feeling powerless is use their brawn to get what they want which is surprisingly successful…at first.

The incompetence of the Miami Police Department portrayed in the film and the unwillingness of anyone including retired detective Ed DuBois (Ed Harris) to approach these criminals directly leads the film on a satirical tangent. It goes far beyond just three muscle heads and makes one ponder just how thin that thin blue line of justice really is. Can these guys really get away with something so crass simply by virtue of being bigger than the other guy? It’s easy to tell a body builder the reason for his lack of upward mobility is based on his lack of formal education, his record and his roid rage; until you get tied to a chair and socked in the face. Then the whole social contract just breaks down. Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…

Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

With an assortment of despicable yet colorful characters, it only makes sense the story is assembled by a despicable yet colorful director. Those who complain about Bay’s frenzied editing and slap-dash handheld camerawork will have less to loathe in Pain & Gain. This isn’t a movie to give you nausea or epilepsy, at least not for the reason you figured. No Michael Bay’s innate ability to compose lyrical portraits of saturated color and beautiful photography is on full display here and for once it isn’t chopped up and rearranged like so much sushi. If only Bay went the way of Werner Herzog and started making naturalistic documentaries we could be spared another Transformers sequel. Plus in nature, there aren’t many windows or mirrors your camera operator can reflect from.

Unfortunately Bay doesn’t make documentaries but popcorn flicks complete with marginalized female characters. In Pain & Gain, the brunt of the sexism is flung on eastern European stripper Sorina (Bar Paly) and portly comic relief Nurse Robin (Rebel Wilson). Yet even through the female characters we see a quest for the idealized American dream torn asunder. Both are love objects to Adrian and Paul and both accept their new homes, cars etc. No questions are asked, even when Adrian comes home to take a shower drenched in blood and Paul snorts away his share of the wealth. I commend Bay’s effort to expand his female character’s motivations to include a yearning to be wealthy in addition to being hitched to whatever dweeb he pegs as our hero.

I'm sorry, I really don't know what I'm doing

Still, with all that in mind, I simply can’t give Pain & Gain a pass. It’s not a pleasant movie to watch by any stretch of the imagination, and the story, while interesting seems to always be stuck in first gear. It’s remarkable when filmmakers come out of their comfort-zone to try something new, even more so when they succeed in that endeavor. Unfortunately for Mr. Bay, Pain & Gain is not a down and out triumph; it rather crosses the finish line with a wheeze and for that I don’t think he’ll be f***ing the prom queen.

Final Grade: D+