A Real Pain
Estranged Jewish cousins embark on a tour of Poland in Jesse Eisenberg’s second film as director.
Jennifer Grey, Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin
Image courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
This deeply satisfying and intelligent film is a special triumph for the actor Jesse Eisenberg given that A Real Pain is absolutely his own personal project. He wrote it and directed it as he had done with one earlier feature (that being 2022's When You Finish Saving the World which was not released in the UK), but this time around he is also a co-producer and takes one of the leading roles himself. What he now gives us is a wholly engaging film that displays a remarkable sense of balance twice over: belonging to the genre of the comedy drama it blends the two elements brilliantly and in addition, while capturing the popular appeal of mainstream cinema, it simultaneously possesses the depth and subtlety more often associated with works of art house appeal.
A co-production between the USA and Poland, A Real Pain tells the story of two Jewish cousins living in America who, following the death of their grandmother, journey together to Poland. Their aim in going to Poland is partly to seek out the house where the grandmother had grown up, she having been somebody with whom both of them had been particularly close. However, their chosen mode of travel within Poland is to join a tour which will give them a closer connection to what it means to be Jewish since its itinerary is built around visits to sites related to the Holocaust. The two cousins despite having grown up together have had much less contact of late and are indeed very different in character and outlook. David (that being Eisenberg's role) lives in New York with his wife (Ellora Torchia) and their young son and seems reasonably content to have a safe but dull job. Benji (Kieran Culkin) is a wanderer, a single man who has never really grown up and who is decidedly extrovert and always keen to make provocative comments. He also favours a bohemian lifestyle developed in his youth including taking drugs still but, if some might now find him insufferable, he can nevertheless rely on a natural charm which makes him socially appealing. The fact of being in Poland on a trip which will include an official visit to the Majdanek concentration camp encourages both David and Benji to ponder the extent to which as Jews of a younger generation they need to feel the pain of the past and, being so different from each other, it is hardly surprising that they should respond each in his own way.
Since A Real Pain deals exclusively with events during their travels, it could be described as a road movie but it is more to the point to see it as a film that is all the richer for having a storyline that explores two separate issues. As indicated, one is concerned with the role that the Holocaust still has for a younger generation but the film is also highly engaging as a portrait of cousins who on account of their childhood closeness could be thought of as akin to siblings. Thus, A Real Pain becomes an in-depth study of that kind of bond in which the attachment can swing between love on the one hand and disapproval or irritation on the other yet irrevocably contains both of them. That is admirably caught here both in the writing and in the acting and it is indeed arguable that it is Eisenberg’s screenplay that is the most crucial factor of all. I was interested to see one admiring critic compare it to the work of Richard Linklater on his Before Sunrise and its sequels. I would probably not have thought of making that connection of my own accord but, once the suggestion had been made, it seemed wholly apt.
The screenplay realises the characters wonderfully well and not least Benji whose remarks provide much of the film’s humour but who is also portrayed as somebody with a real sensitivity to the feelings of others such as the divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey) who is on the tour. He is also revealed late on as being more of a troubled soul than his outward manner would initially suggest. Indeed, if I had to pick out a favourite scene in A Real Pain it would be one in which Benji sits at a piano and performs ‘Tea for Two’ in a way that renders it not jolly as one might expect but as something that provides unexpected evidence that Benji’s usual swagger is a facade. But, if the writing is to be credited here (and it certainly gives Benji complexity and depth which ensure that this is far more than a comic role), not every actor would have the ability to capture all of his aspects in the wonderful way that Kieran Culkin does. His is a star turn and it is greatly to Eisenberg's credit that as the film’s very accomplished director he generously gives Culkin the spotlight. Eisenberg's own performance is properly subsidiary but very fine too and he is on top form when David has his own moment of fine drama expressing his mixed feelings over Benji.
Although the cousins are always central, A Real Pain also contains a great comic creation among its subsidiary characters, this being the tour guide James who comes from Britain. This role is superbly played by Will Sharpe who also deserves an award and, while other supporting players have rather less opportunities, there is an interesting figure in Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan) who as a survivor of the Rwandan genocide has converted to Judaism and is consequently on this tour. The powerful scene at Majdanek shows the mastery with which Eisenberg's film moves into full dramatic mode and, indeed, there is only one sequence which, involving a mishap on a train journey, finds the humour taking over to an extent that briefly loses the sense of absolute conviction that is present everywhere else. But that scarcely matters when the film, honed to an admirably succinct 90 minutes, builds up to a final section which avoids any clichés or sentimentality that might have been indulged, just as the location shooting in Poland adds to the atmosphere without ever being overplayed. The other great merit here is that in handling the question of how intensely people should relate to the Holocaust today as a factor in their lives the film refuses to be in any way didactic, instead leaving it to each viewer to respond in his or her own way to this event which will inevitably tower over Jewish history. This is a film of great sensitivity and of wisdom too.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Kurt Egyiawan, Daniel Oreskes, Liza Sadovy, Jennifer Gręy, Ellora Torchia, Marek Kasprzyk, Jakub Pruski, Krzysztof Jaszczak, Banner Eisenberg.
Dir Jesse Eisenberg, Pro Dave McCary, Ali Herting, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Jennifer Semler and Ewa Puszczynska, Screenplay Jesse Eisenberg, Ph Michal Dymek, Pro Des Mela Melak, Ed Robert Nassau, Costumes Malgorzata Fudala.
Topic Studios/Extreme Emotions/Fruit Tree/Rego Park/Polish Film Institute-Walt Disney Pictures.
90 mins. Poland/USA. 2024. US Rel: 1 November 2024. UK Rel: 8 January 2025. Cert. 15.
