Moving away from the wizarding world, director David Yates’ latest film is more grounded in reality and deals with the dark side of the American Healthcare system. Loosely based on a true story, which stars Emily Blunt and Chris Evans at the forefront, the movie follows a failing pharmaceutical company promoting fentanyl addiction in unsuspecting patients.
While explaining his reasoning behind helming the wheels of this dark comedy, Yates expressed that he found America’s healthcare system fascinating, as it was nothing like what they have in the UK.
David Yates’ Fascination With America’s Healthcare System Pushed Him to Make Pain Hustlers
Considering the public healthcare system is universally accessible and free at the point of use for people in the UK, the American system came as a surprise to the director. David Yates expressed that he was fascinated by the New York Times article by investigative journalist Evan Hughes, which gives a deeper look into the matter that ultimately pushed him to make the movie.
Speaking with Moviefone, the director explained,
“First of all, I come from a country that has a public health system that’s universally accessible and free at point of use, and is geared towards helping people stay healthy. So it’s fascinating to me that a system exists that operates in a slightly different way. I read Evan Hughes’ article, it was my introduction to something that had been going on for years and years in America. So it was shocking to me, and it felt immediately compelling to craft and build a story around Evan’s article”
But despite being inspired by true events, Yates didn’t want the characters to come out as outright monsters, thus adding some layers to their story to make the audience empathize with them.
David Yates Explained Why Pain Hustlers Is a Comedy
Considering the Chris Evans-starrer deals with a pretty heavy subject matter, the director made sure it possessed comedic elements in order to make it more consumable for a wider demographic.
He told MovieWeb:
“This subject matter is quite heavy, and we want as many people to see our movie and be entertained by it but also provoke them into thinking about this issue. Making it fun and making it entertaining is like a Trojan Horse in a sense. As Eliza is pulled and seduced into this world, we wanted the audience to as well, so by the end, you lay out the tragic consequences of the story.”
But despite David Yates’ ambitions, Pain Hustlers failed to score high among critics despite having an amazing cast, including Chris Evans and Emily Blunt. Currently sitting at 22% on the Tomatometer, many deemed the movie’s direction and the sloppy narrative as the major factors that hold the Netflix release back.
Pain Hustlers is available to stream on Netflix.
