A Real Pain follows a pair of cousins, David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin), who embark on a trip across Poland in honor of their late grandmother. With the trip, they look to reconnect with their recently deceased grandmother's roots and the home she had to flee due to the Holocaust. The cousins also hope to get closer after having grown apart ever since David started a family. Benji has found himself aimlessly wandering through life as others have begun to worry about him. The result is a dark comedy that, on the surface, is a breezy character piece with lively dialogue, but underneath all the jokes and beautiful vistas is a somber darkness that matches its lead characters.
A Real Pain is a personal film for Eisenberg, as he stars, writes, and directs. One of the film's standout scenes sees the characters visit the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin. While the surrounding movie is filled with snappy dialogue and characters engaged in deep conversation surrounded by lovely landscape imagery, this is the one moment where everyone falls silent. It is a quiet scene, as the characters (and the audience) are just left to sit with the traumatic emotional history behind the site they are walking through. The somber contemplation shows Eissenberg has a firm grasp of tone, knows when to be silent, and lets the visuals speak.
While Eisenberg's debut directorial effort, When You Finish Saving the World, was interesting if slightly underwhelming, A Real Pain is a much improved sophomore effort that also shows his skills behind the camera are only growing stronger.
Kieran Culkin Is Excellent as a Troubling Man
Mismatched cousins David and Benji tour Poland to honor their grandmother. Their adventure becomes complicated as old tensions resurface while exploring their family history.
- Release Date
- January 20, 2024
- Cast
- Jesse Eisenberg , Kieran Culkin , Will Sharpe , Jennifer Grey , Kurt Egyiawan , Liza Sadovy , Daniel Oreskes , Ellora Torchia , Jakub Gąsowski , Krzysztof Jaszczak , Piotr Czarniecki , Marek Kasprzyk
- Runtime
- 90 Minutes
- Studio(s)
- Topic Studios , Fruit Tree , Extreme Emotions , Rego Park
- Kieran Culkin gives an incredible performance as an emotionally destructive man.
- Jesse Eisenberg has a firm grasp of his characters and the difficult tonal balance of the film.
- A great supporting cast adds levity and layers.
- It is a bit too breezy at times, and Benji may be too irritating to some viewers.
Both Eisenberg and Culkin have been cast to type, but what makes A Real Pain so fascinating is how the actors are allowed to add new layers to the types of roles they have made so famous. Culkin's performance as Benji has been generating rave reviews since the movie premiered at Sundance, and for good reason: it is an incredible role. Anyone who remembers seeing Culkin in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World knows how magnetic a screen presence he has always been, and his star has only grown following his Emmy award-winning performance as Roman Roy on the hit HBO series Succession. Culkin tends to project a sarcastic, cool-guy energy, and that star persona comes into play through his performance as Benji in genuinely stunning ways.
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Benji can be the life of the party one moment, charming and making everyone feel welcome, before becoming incredibly depressed and argumentative. He fluctuates between emotions, and every scene is brimming with tension, as any good time could give way due to the slightest annoyance. Despite his outburst, it is clear that the moments where he is jovial are so infectious that he becomes instantly enduring.
Kieran Culkin's performance and Eisenberg's direction see Benji as a sensitive soul screaming out in pain. There is a genuine love for this character and the millions of people like him. Everyone likely knows a Benji figure, and the nuance and affection for this type of person makes A Real Pain shine. This role could have easily gone wrong, one that revels in big spectacular meltdowns designed to chew the scenery to garner attention. However, Culkin's handling of the role is caring and, as a result, is one of the year's best performances.
Jesse Eisenberg and His Great Supporting Cast
Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of David fits into the actor's soft-spoken and often socially distant acting persona. Yet what is interesting is how the movie implies that David was seemingly once more emotionally expressive in his younger days, but as he got older, he bottled that. This comes from a societal desire to appear older and more mature, contrasting with Benji being far more open and, at times, seen as emotionally immature. David's rigidness contrasts nicely with Benji's expressiveness, which pays off towards the movie's third act, when Eisenberg lets David's true feelings emerge.
Eisenberg and Culkin perfectly capture a cousin dynamic, selling a shared sense of history. They joke and argue as family does, but there is clearly a gap between them, one that has widened as the years have gone by and will continue to grow.
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While Eisenberg and Culkin are the stars of A Real Pain, the supporting cast also shines. The tour group accompanying David and Benji are all delightful characters that might seem small on the page but are fleshed out thanks to some delightful performances. Jennifer Grey has always lit up the silver screen, from Dirty Dancing to Ferris Buller's Day Off, and her role as Marcia, a recently divorced woman, conveys a sense of world-weariness but also love in her heart. She forms a close bond with Benji, whose ambiguity makes it all the more interesting.
Actor Kurt Egyiawan might have the most fascinating role as Eloge, an African immigrant who converted to Judaism following a shared connection having escaped a recent genocide. He's one of the film's best elements, and the actor truly pops in every scene he is in. The great Will Sharpe plays a delightful tour guide while Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes are on hand, as are Diane and Mark, a couple that react to Benji's antics differently and provides a more well-rounded perspective on his actions.
Laugh Out Loud Drama and Somber Comedy
The title A Real Pain has two meanings. It plays off how the characters perceive Benji ('a real pain in the ass'), a widely erratic person seemingly aimless in his life who seems to be both a party and a frustration to many, including his cousin. Yet it is meant to describe Benji's internal feelings, and it's not subtle about that. Throughout the film, Benji is never alone, but the opening and final shots show Benji by himself, sitting with his thoughts. With no words and just his eyes, Culkin conveys a well of sadness that is bursting out with seemingly nobody around to hear.
Despite his cousin's attempts to be there, Benji feels alone and seemingly will be. It gives the ending a dark ambiguity, because what the future holds for Benji is not certain; this might be not only the last time the audience sees him, but maybe the last time his cousin will, too. Hopefully not, but it is a haunting ending that matches the film's tone: a lingering sense of dread simmering under what has been, on the surface, a comedic road trip movie about family members reuniting.
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The "family members reconnect by going on a trip" film has been a staple for smaller-scale filmmaker-driven comedies that Searchlight Pictures, formerly Fox Searchlight, had made their bread and butter with (think Little Miss Sunshine). While A Real Pain touches on some similar beats, it does so with more cynicism and sadness, which makes it refreshing. One couldn't describe A Real Pain as a "feel good" movie; a more accurate description would be a "feel sad comedy." Much like Benji, A Real Pain is filled with humor and heart, which invites the audience to join in both the pleasures and the unshakeable melancholy. From Searchlight Pictures, A Real Pain opens in theaters on November 1, 2024.
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