Based on the 2018 New York Times article turned nonfiction book by Evan Hughes, Netflix’s latest original film, “Pain Hustlers,” follows the true story of a deadly pharmaceutical startup and the sales representatives behind the grim gimmick. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11 before releasing to Netflix on Oct. 27.
Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) is a struggling single mother raising her sick teenage daughter on an exotic dancer’s salary. Under intense pressure to fund her daughter’s life-or-death brain surgery, her desperation for a stable job and reliable income deepens. It is in this moment of sheer hopelessness that Liza meets Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), a suave sales manager from Zanna Pharmaceuticals looking to popularize a new fentanyl-based painkiller for cancer patients, Lonafen. Brenner reels Liza in with a proposal of a $100,000 salary job at Zanna Pharmaceuticals, to which Liza immediately bites. With some forging of her resume and car salesman jargon, Liza begins her journey into what becomes one of the biggest scandals in pharmaceutical history.
Despite not having the biochemistry degree and research experience that she claims, Liza proves to be a natural in pharmaceutical sales. Rather than having a snake-like approach expected from a salesperson, Liza’s empathetic nature shines through in her sales pitch. She understands the patients’ pain and shares in the affected families’ fear for what is to come of their loved ones. Struggling with her own daughter’s health uncertainties fuels her ability to talk doctors into prescribing the drug.
The film perfectly captures the “too good to be true” gut feeling when everything seems to be falling into place. Lonafen is entering doctors’ offices across Florida, prescriptions are written daily and suffering patients are finally getting the relief they desperately need. The company’s sickly beige office is replaced by polished floors and skyscraper views. And, perhaps most edge-of-your-seat worthy, Liza is just within grasp of affording her daughter’s surgery.
With the sudden growth comes a crashing downfall of both the company and its victims. Patients swarm the doctor’s office of Lonafen’s top customer, Dr. Lydell (Brian d’Arcy James), begging for higher doses as they slip into severe addiction. Liza watches helplessly as the drug takes life after life. The empathy that pushed her to sell the drug in the first place now pulls her towards a harrowing decision: out Lonafen for its deception and lose the life that she always dreamed of.
Blunt’s portrayal of Liza’s inner battle is captivating and suspenseful. Her emotional take on the character begs the question of whether she is playing a true villain or simply a desperate mother stuck in an inescapable scheme.
The opioid crisis has plagued the United States for decades. The pharmaceutical industry is constantly under fire for failing to confine painkillers strictly to those who need them, and money-hungry manufacturers are at the root of this failure. With opioid overdoses spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic and nearly 200,000 drug-related deaths reported between 2020 and 2021, “Pain Hustlers” captures an eerily relevant scandal.
The real company behind the film, Insys Therapeutics, took advantage of the opioid epidemic with Subsys, a fentanyl spray meant to treat pain, with many of the tactics used by Lonafen’s salespeople closely resembling Insys’s scheme. Bribery, speaker programs and savvy marketing transformed the startup into an industry-dominating company worth over $95 million. Insys’s downfall was just as severe as Zanna’s, resulting in the company claiming bankruptcy and CEO John Kapoor receiving a 66-month prison sentence.
The film ends with a tearful apology from Liza as she awaits her prison sentence. Unlike her counterparts, who push the blame onto everyone but themselves and latch on to any ounce of innocence they have left, Liza emotionally takes responsibility in a courtroom full of the families Lonafen affected. The darkness of this scene leaves the audience with a reminder of the weight that the real fentanyl epidemic holds, a phenomenon that regrettably continues to this day.
Brenna Hiett is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the fall 2023 quarter. She can be reached at bhiett@uci.edu.
