Tag: Genre

Recently nominated for two Academy Awards—Best Original Screenplay for writer, director, actor and producer Jesse Eisenberg and Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin—“A Real Pain” follows two cousins on a Holocaust tour of Poland in the wake of their grandmother’s passing. The film is intimate, funny, melancholic and also incredibly sad; at its core it is, as the title tells us, an exploration of pain.

Though other characters flit in and out as necessary, all the film’s attention is spent on fleshing out the relationship between our two leads. David (Eisenberg) is described by Manohla Dargis, chief film critic for The New York Times, as “fidgety” and “outwardly ordinary,” which I think sums up his character nicely. If you’re familiar with Eisenberg’s performance as Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 drama “The Social Network,” you won’t find David a much different character—although he is considerably nicer than Zuckerberg. His cousin Benji (Culkin) is David’s total opposite—he’s charming, extroverted and also incredibly volatile, switching his mood at the drop of a hat. When Benji decides that he’s not enjoying himself anymore, he’s going to make sure everyone around him knows it. The two subtly (and not so subtly) clash over the course of the film, with Benji annoyed by David’s soulless corporate attitude and David upset by the lack of structure in Benji’s life.

After landing in Warsaw, the pair meet up with the other members of what Benji calls their “geriatric tour” group. Everyone in the group is Jewish and has some kind of personal connection to the Holocaust—Benji and David’s is through their grandmother, who David says survived through “a thousand miracles”—except for their guide James (Will Sharpe), who is a scholar fascinated by the period. As the group explores Warsaw, the Polish countryside and finally Lublin, we see Benji dazzle the group with his infectious excitement, and then just as quickly drag it down with a series of unexplained outbursts. First it is the train ride, where the group rides first class and Benji cannot reconcile that luxury with how Jewish people were treated in Poland a century ago. Then it is a cemetery where he decides he can’t listen to James’ “constant barrage of stats” anymore. Finally, at dinner, after an awkward conversation about the cousins’ late grandmother, Benji gets up to use the bathroom and David reveals to the group that six months ago his cousin tried to overdose on a bottle of sleeping pills.

The meaning and worth of Benji’s personal pain alongside that of David, their Jewish ancestors and really, everyone in the world, is the question Eisenberg explores throughout the film (but never really answers). Benji is obviously emotionally tormented, but as David puts it, he’s far from the only person suffering, and burdening everyone else with his pain is hardly fair. “I mean, look at what happened to our families. Look at where we came from … I know that my pain is unexceptional,” he says to the group, who nod in agreement. 

What is most interesting about “A Real Pain,” at least to me, is that even in light of these heavy themes the film also has a real levity to it. Much of the movie is genuinely funny. After Benji makes a scene on the train, James remarks in a deadpan, “Obviously, there are triggers along the way with this tour. I must say the train is not normally one of them … ” It doesn’t necessarily translate well on paper, but his concerned yet surprised tone made me laugh out loud as I was watching. The score is all Frédéric Chopin, very light and breezy, and even the film’s color grading skews warm. All these contrasting elements combine to make a single emotionally charged and poignant movie that’s likely to stay with viewers long after the credits roll.

If you’re interested in watching “A Real Pain,” it is currently streaming on Hulu and still playing in a limited number of theaters nationwide.