The Case for Painful Gain

Seeing a Dwayne Johnson / Rock film is always a guilty pleasure.  There is no guarantee that the film will be particularly good, but it will contain a bit of action and some comedy that may or may not be intentional.  Seeing a Mark Wahlberg film is the same kind of deal.

So seeing Pain and Gain, featuring both of these men pumped up to the max as gym junkies, was a completely unknown quantity, assisted by previews that made the film look like an action flick, a comedy film and something a bit serious.

And this may have something to do with the subject matter, as the story itself is based on true life events, but some of the goings on are so extraordinary that one can't help but laugh at them.  It's just a shame that the film doesn't really know how to portray the drama and the comedy as a coherent whole.

Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo, a personal trainer with big dreams who spots a fast way to riches and enlists the aid of fellow trainer Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and seriously huge and ultra religious and none too bright Paul Doyle (Johnson).  Its easy to see why these characters appealed to the actors - they get the chance to get ripped and have a comedic storyline, but as mentioned, the directing kind of lets the whole idea down with very slow pacing and an uneven tone, with some comedy thrown into some scenes where things are meant to be serious and vice versa.  The characters themselves also don't seem terribly well thought out, with Doyle's religious bent played up incredibly at some stages but kind of ignored when there is no comedic value.

Overall though, the film is okay, saved in part by some fantastic supporting performances from Rebel Wilson (now, she knows comic timing!), Tony Shalhoub and Ed Harris.  Meanwhile, the main guys go through the motions and seem to have an absolute ball, working out and playing in expensive toys and joking around, but only a part of that fun translates to chemistry on screen, no matter how many performance enhancing drugs the characters might be taking.

Verdict:  Pain and Gain is a film that must have been a blast to make, but is less exciting to watch,  Still, it has a mix of comedy and reality that makes the film interesting, and all the actors make a good go of it, but something in the editing or directing just lets it down a little, making it less than the some of its parts.  6 repetitions out of 10.