Estranged cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) reunite for a deeply personal road trip to reconnect with their heritage.
The two cousins are not necessarily the ideal travelling companions. Different in nature, Benji gets under David’s skin and knows how to hit his triggers without even trying. Beneath the irritation, the pair share an affection for one another. On a Holocaust tour group, coincidentally run by a gentile tour guide, David and Benji visit various sites, including the Majdanek concentration camp, before departing the tour early to visit the house their grandmother lived.
What’s perhaps most striking about A Real Pain is how it slowly works its magic. As David and Benji’s road trip unfolds, the audience, perhaps unbeknownst to them, have been emotionally drawn into the film. At times there’s an immature quality to the story, especially in regards to Benji, who is the rebellious one. This, however, is Eisenberg’s skill – effortlessly creating an emotional and thematic weight to the story.
A Real Pain is about how well we think we know one another? Just because we grew up with someone, or we’re related, does that mean we really know someone? Within this, the film is also about being attentive to one another. Do we really see someone? Do we actually listen? Are we engaging with compassion and understanding? These are all questions that Eisenberg has folded into his film, without being too on the nose. Not everyone will pick up on these, but we shouldn’t underestimate the power of reaching conclusions independently. Eisenberg appears to be a filmmaker who encourages and welcomes this.
On its surface, A Real Pain is a fun film despite the serious dramatic concept of the Holocaust tour group and connecting with one’s family’s trauma. In his sophomore feature, Eisenberg finds the sweet spot between comedy and drama. It’s less of a sweet spot and more a contentious point that splits the audience’s reaction. There are moments that simultaneously provoke laughter and the feeling of a sympathetic heavy heart. A Real Pain plays with this relationship to good effect. The drama and comedy compliment one another. It never goes too much one way or another, and this toing and froing creates a tension that manipulates a ping of guilt within us.
Human beings are prone to feel guilty about inappropriate or insensitive humour, and to a degree, Eisenberg’s film says, look, humour is our saving grace. It doesn’t mean we don’t have reverence for the past, but humour and comedy, a certain playfulness, like when Benji encourages the tour group to play act and pose around a memorial, helps us to cope with and process dark experiences.
It’s only by the end of A Real Pain that we feel like are we beginning to understand these characters. In many ways, David and Benji are jigsaw puzzles we’ve been putting together – their words, gestures and actions pieces of their overall puzzle. It’s tempting to see Benji as the more complicated or layered of the two, but this does a disservice to David. The way they relate to one another is necessary to understand them respectively. Benji, however, is the emotional engine that drives the film, who reveals his vulnerability more readily, and tests the group’s compassion, empathy and understanding.
This Polish-American co-production is an understated but touching story that continues where Eisenberg left off with his debut feature, When You Finish Saving the World (2022). He’s slowly idebtifying himself as one of cinema’s sensitive voices, interested in playing with tone to get under the skin of family and human nature.
A Real Pain premiered in the Best of Festivals section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. In cinemas on Friday, January 17th. On all major VoD platforms on Monday, March 17th.
