Movie Review: 'A Real Pain'

A Real Pain

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg

Written by Jesse Eisenberg

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Jennifer Grey

Release Date November 15th, 2024

Published November 14th, 2024

A Real Pain stars Jesse Eisenberg as Dave and Kieran Culkin as Dave’s troubled cousin, Benji. The duo are taking a trip to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late, beloved grandmother who recently passed away. Both have taken the loss hard but Benji in particular has been reeling from the loss as he and grandma were exceptionally close. According to Benji, granny was the only one who could withstand his relentless onslaught of telling it like it is. The rest of the family kept Benji at arms length.

In recent years, that also included Dave who has started a successful career in online sales and has a wife and a child. He and Benji used to be as close as brothers but as Benji became more and more outspoken about family issues, even Dave was forced to pull away. There was also the typical life stuff of just being busy. Now, the two are going to be alone together for a week in a foreign country and it will be a test of their relationship unlike any other. Naturally, Benji kicks off the trip by telling Dave he’s sneaking weed into Poland, stoking Dave’s already inflamed anxiety over the trip.

The title, A Real Pain, has a double meaning. On a base comedic level, Benji is a real pain in the butt with his dedication to hedonism and saying everything that comes to his mind. He’s a lot to take in and he doesn’t care how anyone feels about him. At times he’s incredibly charming, engaging, and kind. In a moment however, Benji can turn, bordering on cruelty. It’s never clear what might cause his switch to flip from friendly to fired up. He’s not dangerous but he’s volatile on an emotional level.

The second meaning of the title is more esoteric. It’s about cutting through the pleasantries and politeness to feel something real. Even if that feeling is emotional pain, that kind of psychic pain that can come with feeling empathy for the suffering of others. In this case, since we are in Poland and taking part in a tour of Jewish landmarks and and an actual concentration camp, the pain being channeled is the agonizing horror of the holocaust, an experience their grandmother went through firsthand.

While Benji opens himself fully to this empathetic pain, Dave tries his damnedest to keep the pain at bay. This drives a wedge between the two of them. That wedge was already there from their already divided relationship, making the tension boil throughout the movie, always under the surface of a pleasant, polite, maintaining of the status quo by Dave. The humor of A Real Pain bubbles within the tension between Dave and Benji with Dave trying to keep things pleasant and Benji pushing the envelope in his attempt to get Dave to open up.

This sounds sadder than it plays, the movie is relatively light as it moves swiftly from New York to Poland and eases into the tour of Poland, headed toward a solemn and emotional trip to the concentration camp that their grandmother somehow, miraculously survived. Helping keep things from becoming grim are a cast of supporting players on the tour. Chief among them is Marcia (Jennifer Grey) who becomes fast friends with Benji. The relationship is seemingly platonic but that’s because Jesse Eisenberg doesn’t linger on it, leaving the nature of the friendship for us to speculate on.

Jesse Eisenberg’s style as a director is still coming together. In his first feature, Eisenberg is giving his actors plenty of space to mine for moments, keeping his camera mostly still, while the editing keeps things visually interesting. It’s a solid approach for a first time filmmaker who has time to build an eye for stronger visuals. For now, he’s focused on intimacy and allowing his actors to dig in and carry the movie. The direction is more than merely rudimentary though, it’s a debut work that indicates a bright future for Eisenberg behind the camera.

A Real Pain is a terrific movie. It’s got an unexpected warmth considering the characters are, as I described them above, a bit anxious, agitated, and prickly. The film is not a laugh riot but the humor is present throughout the film even as tensions flare and tempers rise and fall. The film ends then on a note of lovely ambiguity that I will not spoil for you. It’s a terrific ending, the kind that you will carry with you after you leave the theater. It’s an earned ambiguity that few movies are capable of pulling off without feeling unsatisfying.

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