Pain is money. Just ask the pharmaceutical industry which made 1.48 trillion dollars last year. Now that’s a lot of pills.

This is yet another story, of what seems to be a growing trend, featuring a company making a ridiculous amount of money from selling pills, but at what cost to those who pop them?

2011, Florida, and Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) is struggling to make ends meet for herself and her daughter Phoebe (Chloe Coleman). But a chance encounter in a strip club, where she’s currently working, with a guy called Pete (Chris Evans), is about to change all that.

As she correctly guessed, he’s a medical rep, for a failing pharmaceutical start-up. Drunkenly he offers her a job, which she accepts soon after to his surprise. But this hiring happens to be one of the better decisions he’s made recently, as Liza has a talent for selling, and before he knows it, the company is taking off, all because of her.

But as Liz soon discovers, once this particular genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back, as the new-found success of the company has some severe consequences.

It’s films like these that make you appreciate our NHS even more, as they highlight just how problematic the health system is in the US.

It’s no surprise to learn that it’s based on a true story, which ultimately sees greed take lives. It follows Blunt’s character Liza through her rise through the ranks of a medical sales rep. As mentioned, the outcome is sadly nothing new, as we’ve seen it all before.

Unfortunately for this film, the excellent mini-series Dopesick from 2021, starring Michael Keaton and our own Will Poulter, put the medical sales rep in the spotlight, and therefore to shame, with great success. So this may well be a different drug, but it’s the same old same old. Which is a shame considering the impressive cast.

Perhaps the fact that its British director David Yates, who has spent the majority of his career in the wizardry world of Harry Potter (directing not only the last four in the franchise, but also both Fantastic Beasts films), means that he may be just a tad out of touch with the real world.

The narrative of his film sees Blunt as his heroine, showing that grit and determination to make something of her life, which is all very commendable. The film loses its way – and focus – when the situation starts to get out of hand, and it dawns on Liza just what she’s been an integral part of.

Her story puts the story of drugs being given to those who shouldn’t have them in the shade, as Yates almost manipulates the audience to feel sorry for Liza, who was clearly implicit in the outcome. There’s even a sense of redemption in her part of it, despite deaths occurring from the drugs she was peddling, but you know what, she’s a good mom so we can let her off. Even with all the evidence his film produces, Yates is unwilling to have his star be the bad guy – she was Mary Poppins after all.

There are some nice performances, especially the relationship between Blunt and Evans, and a great turn by Jay Duplass as likeable unlikable member of the company.

But with Dopesick pulling no punches in highlighting the opioid epidemic, this is just a little too lightweight and frothy by comparison.