Movie Review: ‘A Real Pain’

Opening in theaters November 1st is ‘A Real Pain,’ directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, and Daniel Oreskes.

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Initial Thoughts

Jesse Eisenberg has long been an acquired taste as an actor, but as a director, his second feature, ‘A Real Pain,’ shows tremendous growth from his 2022 debut behind the camera, ‘When You Finish Saving the World.’ While that film felt incomplete and abrasive in ways, ‘A Real Pain’ brings tremendous emotional sensitivity and a more focused wit to the story of two cousins traveling together to the land of their family’s heritage, and the issues that journey brings up.

Eisenberg also wrote and stars in the picture as the more grounded of the two characters, but the showcase performance is undoubtedly that of Kieran Culkin, who comes off his incredible run on ‘Succession’ to create a character here that is complex, irritating, endearing, and deeply wounded. ‘A Real Pain’ seems deceptively modest at first, but is a powerfully funny and poignant look at family, loneliness, depression, and heritage.

Story and Direction

David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) are cousins who were super-tight as kids but have drifted apart as adults. David is married, with a child and a solid but unglamorous job in tech, and anxiety-ridden. Benji is much looser, and living in what could best be described as a state of arrested development, although there’s ultimately more to it than that.

The two, who haven’t seen each other in years, meet at the airport for a flight to Poland, where they will tour both sites related to their family and the Holocaust thanks to money left to them by their late, beloved grandmother. From the start, Benji is much more devil-may-care, even smuggling weed aboard an international flight to David’s horror. Once they get to Poland and meet up with the rest of their tour group, Benji’s free-spiritedness manifests itself even more in ways both charming and exasperating, both to David and the group.

Whether it’s berating the cerebral tour guide James (Will Sharpe) for not exhibiting more emotion at the sites they visit, or abruptly deciding not to sit in the paid-for first class section of the train (because of a sudden interest in human rights), or having the group enact a battle scene at a memorial in the middle of a park, Benji dominates the tour with his outsized personality and antics. That sets him at odds with the more reserved David, who struggles with issues of his own and is often embarrassed at his cousin’s behavior. But as more of their family history comes to light, the double meaning of the movie’s title emerges as well: yes, Benji is a real pain, but he’s also dealing with the real pain of mental illness, which has led him to some dark places that he and David must confront.

But while that sounds grim – and the movie does feature some heavy emotional moments – much of ‘A Real Pain’ is scathingly funny, again thanks to Benji’s interactions with the tour group and the world around him. It’s a tonal balancing act managed beautifully by Eisenberg’s sharp script and unfussy direction, and given resonance by a series of locations both lovely and somber in Poland, shot magnificently by Michel Dymek. In one particularly haunting sequence, the group travels through some lush countryside only to arrive at the real Majdanek concentration camp, the setting for one of the movie’s most quietly and almost overwhelmingly powerful scenes.

The Cast

As we noted above, Jesse Eisenberg as an actor is not always everybody’s cup of tea: he’s specialized throughout his career I twitchy, neurotic, highly intellectual characters who often can’t see past their own anxieties. But following his nuanced work on the ‘Fleishman is in Trouble’ miniseries, Eisenberg here brings more gravitas and even playfulness to the role of David, who may not possess the same free spirit as his cousin but is working hard to be content with who he is.

Yet Eisenberg generously cedes the spotlight to his sparring partner Culkin, who just dominates the proceedings throughout the movie. His Benji is at first righteous, arrogantly self-confident, casually careless, and determined to push people’s buttons. But that hides a far deeper pain embedded in his very soul, which Culkin brings out masterfully as he slowly peels away Benji’s bravado and lets us see the frightened boy inside. It’s a masterful performance from an actor who’s truly coming into his own, effortlessly turning our exasperation with Benji into empathy and compassion.

The supporting cast – which includes Jennifer Grey, Will Sharpe, and others – complete their assignments believably and humorously as the rest of the tour group that David and Benji are on, sketching out portraits of exactly the sort of people you’d meet on a trip like this and the way their interactions unfold, as they are briefly united as traveling partners and even friends who find themselves willing to share bits of themselves with complete strangers.

Final Thoughts

‘A Real Pain’ is the kind of “small” independent film (albeit released by Disney subsidiary Searchlight Pictures) that may seem humble in its scope but actually says something quite large about family history in every sense of the word. It’s also a poignant reminder of how important it is to learn where we come from and to stay in touch with the people we love, a theme that Eisenberg skillfully makes clear without being heavy-handed or cloying.

It’s also funny as hell, lovely to look at, and should be in the Oscars conversation for best supporting actor and best original screenplay at the very least. ‘A Real Pain’ is anything but as a movie, and is an encouraging vehicle for both the future directorial career of Jesse Eisenberg and the continuing evolution of Kieran Culkin as one of our stealth best actors.

‘A Real Pain’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.