Emotional pain is a difficult thing to deal with, and everyone deals with it differently. A Real Pain, the latest film from writer/director/actor Jesse Eisenberg, deals with emotional pain in an interesting and unique way. Emotional trauma is told through the eyes of two cousins who take a trip to Poland in an effort to fix what’s broken.
The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as David Kaplan, a quiet New Yorker living a modest life with his wife and child. His cousin, Kieran Culkin’s Benji Kaplan, is a mess through the eyes of anyone looking at him from a distance. He doesn’t have much going for him, but he loved his grandmother. When the two embark on a holocaust tour of Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother, we see two different ways to deal with similar pain.
If you’ve seen Eisenberg or Culkin in almost anything, you already know what to expect from their characters. David feels like an Eisenberg role… quirky, rambling, and lacking self-confidence. Meanwhile, Benji is essentially a slightly less damaged variant of Culkin’s Succession character, Roman Roy. He’s just as bold and confident as Roman, with similar pain hiding just beneath the surface.
Both cousins feel the void their grandmother left, but what makes the film such an interesting character study is how they deal with that pain. David keeps it bottled up, occasionally lashing out at Benji for being everything he’s not, and for missing what the two had when they were children. Benji seems like a carefree, modern, flower child on the outside, but inside he’s deeply hurt by both the passing of his favorite person, and also the loss of the closeness he had with his cousin in their childhood.
Benji is sometimes manic, sometimes intellectual, and always fun. His pain runs deep, but he masks it with his free-spirited nature. Within their tour group, Benji is the one who gets everyone motivated, and even offers unsolicited advice, with mixed reactions. All the while, David is trying to keep his cousin focused on the task at hand, getting agitated when he goes off the rails, and feeling sorry for losing touch after they were so close.
As the film progresses, so does the pain these two feel. Whether it’s an outburst, or a solemn conversation, the pain slowly bubbles up. By the end of the movie you realize they’re two sides of the same coin, expressing their emotions in vastly different ways, but experiencing the same pain. Even the title of the film is dual sided, showcasing the real pain that Benji seems to be from David’s perspective, and the real pain they’re both feeling at an emotional level.
A Real Pain is certainly award-worthy, but it’s also a quiet and comforting journey through loss. There’s enough levity to maintain balance and keep the audience locked in for a ride that could end up causing a few tears to be shed when it’s all said and done. If you’re a fan of Culkin or Eisenberg, there’s a lot of them in this film, and they’re both performing at their peak, even if they feel a bit typecast. This isn’t a film you necessarily need to see theatrically, but experiencing it in a group, and having a conversation as the credits roll will enhance the film considerably.
About A Real Pain
Synopsis: Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Writer: Jesse Eisenberg
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Kurt Egyiawan, Jennifer Gray
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Bryan Dawson has been writing professionally since the age of 13. He started his career as a video game writer and has since worked for Random House, Prima Games, DirecTV, IGN, AOL, the British Government, and various other organizations. For GNN, Bryan taps into his passion for movies.
