Painless is a 2018 thriller about a man who desperately seeks a cure for the condition that leaves him unable to feel physical pain.
In a cinematic age where superheroes dominate the landscape, it’s sort of refreshing to find a movie that crafts a story primed for such before taking it in a new direction. In explaining the plot to writer/director Jordan Horowitz‘s latest Painless, it’s tempting to think this a clone of M. Night Shyamalan‘s Unbreakable, at least in its potential in where to takes its lead. However, this is not that kind of movie and rarely sticks to anything conventional, leaving it a curiously languid yet highly compelling experience that might not always know best how to tell its tale but is nonetheless a real thinker.
Henry Long (Joey Klein) knew from an early age that he was different. While most kids might have some quirky personalities or awkward growth spurts that leave them temporarily feeling isolated, Henry is permanently on the sidelines. He is unable feel pain, which at first thought might seem inviting, but for one experiencing such, is a catastrophic nightmare. Are those noodles hot? Did that stumble break a bone? It’s impossible to know until you see the damage. It forces Henry into seclusion, hiding in his tiny apartment in search of a cure, becoming an obsession where he barely goes out for anything but necessities. He’s also become highly-skilled at diagnosis, able to accurately detail a person’s ailments. Eventually he is contacted by Dr. Andrews (Pascal Yen-Pfister), a specialist with his own condition, the two in need of each other to find personal solutions, though the journey travels them into the shadows and soon conflict.
Avoiding temptation to have Henry suit up and fight crime, Horowitz instead casts Henry as a dour, sullen man, stricken by decades of loneliness, knowing that anything unforeseen in the world beyond his home could spell disaster. Here’s a guy who doesn’t even know if the temperature is affecting him. He’s not interested in helping others, not wanting to spend his life as a research project, but the opportunity offered him through Andrews is too tempting to pass, even if it leads him to places he doesn’t expect. Into the mix though comes Shani (Evalena Marie) a meet cute girl at a coffee shop who triggers some deeper needs within him that has him taking risks. The irony is that while Henry can feel no pain he suffers constantly, something Klein captures astonishingly well on his tortured face.
Painless is not a high-speed thriller. It’s rather a slow-moving bit of suspense, dialogue-heavy and rife with some spellbinding science that feels legit even it’s probably not. What works best though is how the film depends on that science without ever leaning on it, keeping Henry’s odyssey front and center. It strives for authenticy, rigidly keeping as grounded as possible, and its terrific when it deals with the emotional turbulence in the often touching scenes involving Shani, a woman he is initially reluctant to tell about his condition. She brings out in him some new possibilities and a kind of turn-the-corner approach to what he’s up to. The two are fun to watch.
Genuinely managing to keep this a small and personal story, Painless is in many ways a revolution, its message obvious yet delicately played out, sometimes weaving bits of guitar-strumming Indie-romance into the seedy underbelly of unchecked scientific discovery. It has its flaws in keeping balance between the two (including unnecessary narration), yet at a brisk 80 minutes makes for an easy recommendation for fans of both science-heavy dramas and quirky romantic love stories.