A Real Pain Review

Directed By: Jesse Eisenberg
Written By: Jesse Eisenberg
Runtime: 89 minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for language throughout and some drug use.

Jesse Eisenberg – David Kaplan
Kieran Culkin – Benji Kaplan
Will Sharpe – James
Jennifer Grey – Marcia
Kurt Egyiawan – Eloge
Daniel Oreskes – Mark
Liza Sadovy – Diane

Actor and filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg presents his sophomore directorial effort in the poignant, bittersweet dramedy, A Real Pain. Eisenberg presents a surprisingly intimate and weirdly hilarious film, exploring the bond of two cousins, Benji (Culkin) and David Kaplan (Eisenberg), who reunite for a tour Holocaust tour in Poland to honor their late beloved grandmother. The film showcases a culmination of much of Eisenberg’s career, and he adeptly demonstrates his strengths and crafts a wonderful, beautiful film.

A Real Pain begins with David and Benji reuniting at an airport after some time apart. They’re about to travel to Poland to embark on a Holocaust tour in Poland to honor the last wishes of their beloved grandmother, a survivor of the Holocaust. They join a small tour group of other practicing Jews who wish to explore their heritage and cultural history.

Although Benji and David are cousins, they used to be as close as brothers. More recently, the two have grown apart, with David focusing on his career and family. The free-spirited, wayward Benji hides a quiet pain and depression he pushes beneath the surface of his charming, gregarious demeanor. Throughout their trip, Benji’s genuine pain and issues appear as they walk in their grandmother’s footsteps.

A Real Pain emphasizes Eisenberg’s gift for off-beat, awkward humor, which he executes with aplomb. Even when the plot of A Real Pain takes some predictable turns, the events never unfold as initially expected. Eisenberg’s directing style showcases a genuine, realistic style through the dialogue and human interactions. On its face, Eisenberg crafts A Real Pain as a road trip buddy comedy. However, he avoids making the road trip a Murphy’s Law-laden comedy of errors, where everything goes wrong. Things do go awry, but then they are surprisingly fixed. The emotionally cathartic confrontations, but those moments emerge in unexpected ways. It makes the experience of viewing A Real Pain far more rewarding since the narrative marches to its own beat with a familiar premise.

One of the emotional blowups comes when Benji offers the gentlemanly, polite, yet somewhat dry British tour guide, James (Sharpe), some brutally honest feedback about his process. For the nervous and neurotic David, this is a supremely uncomfortable moment. However, Eisenberg’s script pays this scene off rather brilliantly much later in the film when James acknowledges the feedback. Eisenberg’s characters and dialogue capture the awkward hilarity that often comes with real-life human interactions that movies rarely capture. This is where A Real Pain truly shines.

Thankfully, A Real Pain treats the moments of the Holocaust tour with genuine introspection, demonstrated by one scene where James takes the tour group through a concentration camp. The scene features very little actual dialogue, but the way the scene captures Benji’s anxiety and melancholy through ambiance alone speaks volumes of Eisenberg’s talent and potential as a director.

Culkin and Eisenberg share tremendous chemistry and play off one another believably as the duo of Benji and David. They share almost nothing in common, but the film exceptionally portrays the familial bond. Eisenberg simultaneously resents and envies Benji, specifically, his easygoing nature and ability to easily charm an entire room. However, Benji feels lost and directionless in his life, clearly still battling feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts. Both actors capture these aspects of their characters’ personalities incredibly well, triggering similar feelings in the audience toward the characters. They imbue their roles with thoughtful sincerity but still provide genuine laughs from the realistically awkward situations they encounter.

Jesse Eisenberg presents a genuinely thoughtful, lovely cinematic experience with a A Real Pain. It’s a thoughtful, sincere, genuine, and emotional storyline that also features some strangely hilarious laughs where they are least expected. Jesse Eisenberg should be proud of crafting such a beautiful, poignant, yet intimate and easygoing, road trip buddy comedy.

9.0

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

Jesse Eisenberg crafts a wonderfully acted, poignant, emotional, and weirdly hilarious story about two mismatched cousins taking a road trip across Poland. Eisenberg and Culkin share amazing chemistry as Benji and David, providing some big laughs from surprisingly realistic human interactions. The film possesses a genuinely thoughtful emotional core as the two cousins, who are no longer as close as they once were, retrace their beloved grandmother's footsteps. A Real Pain provides a marvelous, bittersweet, thoughtful, and surprisingly intimate cinematic experience.