Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
A Real Pain
In the hybrid comedy/drama A Real Pain, written, directed and acted by Jesse Eisenberg, first cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) journey to Poland after their grandmother dies. Because she leaves them money to see her homeland and because of their close relationship with her, they decide to go. As disparate as night and day, the cousins had fallen out of touch. But the trip may restore their former relationship as kids. Also, they believe that their adventure celebrates family heritage and memorializes their beloved grandmother’s incredible legacy as a Holocaust survivor.
But the adventure is far from benignly pleasant. Benji tries his cousin’s soul for reasons the film doesn’t make readily apparent. However, driven to the breaking point, of necessity David spills his guts. In a superb, emotionally packed monologue at the dinner table with tour members, Eisenberg delivers. In a crystalizing moment we understand the reasons for Benji’s charming, “over the top” behavior.
Benji irks David
Prior to his explosion and after it, David experiences angst, tension, fury, humor, and enlightenment as a result of dealing with his cousin. Together they share their individual forms of chaotic suffering and joy. Additionally, the cousins effect an erratic, unwitting side show for the other members of the tour. But by the adventure’s conclusion, David and Benji appreciate each other and their extraordinary ancestral inheritance. Contentedly, they recognize the special time together brought about by their grandmother’s wise generosity. In the film’s last moments they agree to further the bonds the trip cemented.
A Real Pain touches upon Eisenberg’s own family history. His relatives were Jews who fled Poland in 1938. The film also references the places Eisenberg visited on his own first trip to Poland in 2007, including his family’s apartment.
As such, the film is a personal and historical love letter to his family, and it resonates with all who lost relatives in the concentration camps during World War Two. On a wider scale, the film honors the resilience, power and strength of those who dealt with trauma in the aftermath of the war. Forced to live with pain each day of their lives, they worked through it individually, silently. Survivors like the cousins’ grandmother moved through the depths of despair and sought the hope of renewal. Miraculously, they created new lives while reconciling suffering and the horrific memories of an irrevocably dark past.
Starting and Ending at the Airport
The film begins and ends in an airport, which Benji says he enjoys. He watches the people and imagines their lives in transit. The characters Eisenberg delineates are distinctive and authentic, thanks to the skills of both actors. With authenticity they mirror their characters’ extraordinary bond.
Though David and Benji appear to be disunited emotionally in the present, they reference their close childhood. Benji’s affable, energetic, adventurous, catalytic nature outshines, David’s quiet, uptight reserve. Interestingly, David, the traditionalist, is married, with a successful job, a son and family responsibilities. On the other hand Benji, single, wild, without a job at the moment, lives at home with his mother. Envy and unease with each other’s lives may have forced them apart.
Initially, Eisenberg draws the audience into stereotypes and distracts with writerly magic dust. As David and Benji move along their journey into and out of each other and themselves, other aspects of their personalities emerge and surprise. For example, when Benji says he’s bringing weed with him, David assumes the worst. Assuming that Benji has recklessly packed it in his suitcase, he fears going through customs and security. That nothing happens astounds David.
Clearly, David underestimates Benji’s brilliance. When they arrive at the hotel, the staff delivers a package to Benji (the weed). Interestingly, Benji understands the parameters of what can and can’t be done. He knows how to negotiate risk with daring and bravado so as not to get caught. Apparently, Benji carefully researched how to bring the drug into Poland. He anticipates the weed will break down David’s reserve. They both need it.
David’s Caution Irks Benji
On the other hand, cautious David seeks the safe path and thinks Benji takes dangerous chances. In the first part of the film, as they reestablish their relationship, Eisenberg withholds information about Benji. However, later in the film, we discover the founding incident for David’s upset, wariness and hurt with his cousin.
Upon meeting members of the tour (the ensemble is uniformly excellent), Benji warms up to individuals immediately. Conversely, David’s reserve makes him invisible. Divorced Marcia (Jennifer Grey) goes on the trip to negotiate her own painful life circumstances and learns joyfulness again. Like Marcia, another couple has family who are Holocaust survivors. The English tour guide James (Will Sharpe) researched the Holocaust as a scholar. Taking an intellectual approach, James highlights everything he knows about the sights they visit with detailed information. For Benji this tiresome, boring, overwhelming approach sucks the life out of their experiences. Instead, Benji wishes to see present-day Poland and interact with its culture and people.
An Unhallowed Moment
In one of the oldest, most lovely cemeteries in Poland with some of the oldest, best preserved gravestones, James overextends his talk. Frustrated, Benji upbraids James for his robotic spewing of information during a meditative, hallowed moment. Embarrassed at Benji’s effrontery, David apologizes for Benji.
For David who has less sensitivity toward people, and shyness, Benji’s gift for empathy and making connections blow him out of the water. Though Benji intuitively understands people, he also turns situations around to benefit himself, under the radar. Indeed, for David, Benji is the pain, one of the many references to the film’s title. David knows him best, and does see through to his motivations.
Humor and Pathos
A Real Pain contains the right balance of humor and pathos. Not only do the actors hit it out of the ballpark, the bond they create authenticates our empathy for both individuals. Also, the emotional grist underlying the theme of dealing with trauma packs a gut-wrenching punch when we least expect it. Thanks to Eisenberg’s talents as a director, writer and actor, A Real Pain is one to see. Some rush tickets may be available on the New York Film Festival website. https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2024/films/a-real-pain/
