Michael Bay and...Nuance?: Tone in Pain & Gain

The year is 1994. It's Miami (because of course it's Florida). Three body-building friends with no money and a warped concept of the American Dream decide to kidnap a rich asshole who works out at their gym. They have a plan. Things don't go smoothly. And for 40 minutes, Pain & Gain is the funniest film of the year.

The latest film from Michael Bay, Pain & Gain is a passion project for the director, who has wanted to make this "small" movie for years. And it's clear why: the film's plot is chock full of misplaced bravado, disastrously over-the-top scheming, and oozes 'attitude' from every pore. In short, subject matter right up Bay's alley. Yet what makes Pain & Gain work so well is that the director manages to reign in his own chaotic visual style. The editing still jumps from shot to shot with abandon, the colors remain garishly vibrant, and the camerawork once again is defined by its kinetic movement. But if Michael Bay retains his signature touches, here they're used to tell an actual story instead of a CGI-cutscene, resulting in what is the director's best narrative work since Bad Boys (admittedly, not a high bar).

He is buoyed by some tremendous performances by his talented cast. Mark Wahlberg's ringleader, Daniel Lugo, is the film's magnetically compelling center, the actor's playful charisma successfully disguising the utter psychopath hiding beneath the surface. Meanwhile, Tony Shaloub does great work as the businessman the criminal trio targets: despite having done nothing wrong, Shaloub comes across as such an asshole that we understand why no one would miss him. But the true star of the show is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Really. Portraying an actual character for once, rather than just an intimidating build, Johnson is cast surprisingly against type as a well-meaning but overly trusting co-conspirator. His born-again ex-con finds himself constantly torn between his love of Jesus and love of cocaine, a struggle which is both hilarious and, at times, genuinely touching.

The end result is an exhilarating ride as we follow a stupid get-rich-quick scheme perpetrateded by even stupider criminals. And for the first half of the film, Pain & Gain seems to be a spectacular absurdist comedy. But around the time that Lugo and co. attempt to rid themselves of a now-penniless Shaloub, a sneaking thought entered into my head: They actually did these things to a guy. And at that moment, my film experience took a disturbing turn that it never fully recovered from.

 

Pain & Gain is based closely on a true story, and this is simultaneously its greatest strength and its eventual downfall. On one hand, the sheer absurdity of the real-life events ironically work to ground the film, creating a world where the audience is willing to go along with anything. In a late scene, Johnson waves to neighbors as he grills pairs of human hands and the words "This is still based on true events" are thrust onto the screen. It is blunt, crude, and deeply unsettling; it also is one of the film's biggest laughs.

Ultimately, however, the knowledge that I wasn't watching a hijinks-filled caper but an embellished version of real-life crimes gnawed at me as the film went on. To Bay's credit, this seems to be part of his point. By casting people like Wahlberg and Johnson, the audience is pre-inclined to align themselves with them, and early scenes play up the trio's bumbling earnestness in order to make us root for them. But then their amorality accelerates, more and more unspeakable acts are committed, and I felt uncomfortable watching the action onscreen. More than that, I felt complicit. It's a bold move for the film to take, and in the end it doesn't quite work as well as the film wants it too. What it did do though is make me think about myself as an audience member and how I approach film, which means that Michael Bay has made the most thought-provoking movie I've seen this year. Again, really.

Pain & Gain is far from a perfect film. Many of Bay's second-act attempts at comedy are played so earnestly that it undercuts the guilt-inducing tone he's just managed to establish. There is also an insane overabundance of voice-over narration throughout the movie (When a random stripper gets a V.O. backstory I thought the film was parodying itself. Instead, it kept introducing even more narrators). But if it's not a great film, then Pain & Gain is just shy of great. It's entertaining as hell until it isn't. And "until it isn't" manages to be the most interesting part.