Every now and again a true story comes along at the movies that is so bizarre, there leaves little doubt it has to be true. No one could write this story. I haven't seen a true story this strange since the masterpiece, Fargo nearly 20 years ago.
That is this weeks Pain And Gain with Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and a real nice supporting cast. This is the story of Daniel Lugo and his completely inept "posse," that somehow ripped off a hugely rich man of literally all of his money and possessions in Miami during the mid-1990's. The circumstances surrounding this whole ordeal is nothing short of head-shaking.
Lugo (Wahlberg) and his band of hacks are loser body builders in Miami in 1994. Lugo is frustrated with life and decides through a fellow hack of an inspirational speaker that he should have a bigger financial piece of the pie in life than he has. So as a personal trainer, he befriends a client Victor (Tony Shalhoub). Lugo then enlists the help of fellow body builders Paul (Johnson) and Adrian (Anthony Mackie) to hatch a birdbrained plot kidnap Victor and have him sign over everything he owns to them. And despite the fact they are amazingly horrible at this, they are somehow successful.
Then after Victor survives numerous attempts at being killed by this idiotic gang, he calls and somehow gets a retired Miami detective Ed (Ed Harris) to try to track them down. But only after the Miami police department doesn't believe any of Victors story, and blow him off. As Ed goes after the gang, they decide to try the same thing on the king of phone porn Frank (Micheal Rispoli). Only this time they are not anywhere near successful. Will they get caught? That is Pain And Gain.
This is a wildly compelling movie with a story you certainly have not seen before. There is great character development and really slick interaction with our stars. This movie twists and turns throughout and each one is more bizarre than the last. But skillfully, this movie never loses its central focus of being ironic, off beat, and completely original. All of our stars give really solid performances, especially Johnson who is wonderfully cast was this mountain of man ex-con, with a substance abuse history, a very soft side and a guilty conscience. He is very funny and overall terrific. Great to see Ed Harris back on screen as he is one of Hollywood's best supporting actors. He gives a real nice performance in a small, but important role.
Also good to see a Wahlberg dominated movie that looks nothing like the previous 3 or 4. They were all starting to bunch together, but this certainly stands apart. This is funny, charming at times, rough, harsh, edgy, ironic, strange and fun all at the same time. This gets huge originality points, and is a very nice alternative to what's at the movies right now. This is a hard R rated movie and well deserved.
Pain And Gain. A very entertaining movie.
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