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A Real Pain Movie Review

A Real Pain is a 2024 dramedy film directed by Jesse Eisenberg and starring himself opposite Kieran Culkin. It’s a simple, but mostly effective debut feature.

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“This, people, is what fucking filmmaking is about“

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Mismatched cousins David and Benji tour Poland to honor their grandmother. Their adventure becomes complicated as old tensions resurface while exploring their family history. This is the directorial debut for Eisenberg, who also write, produced and starred in this film that is clearly his project through and through. He did a pretty good job for a first-timer. The cinematography is uninspired and the movie is technically not at all impressive, but in terms of tonal diversity, emotional engagement and character development he did deliver in spades.

David and Benji are quite different from each other, but they still share that evident dynamic that anybody who has ever interacted with a cousin knows very well. The movie truly gets its central familial relationship while also emphasizing how estranged most people become from their larger families after their childhood. There is a sense of shared family history here, but also a sense of pensive sadness and nostalgia for the past that really appealed to me.

I would have to say that both of these actors were clearly typecast for their roles that they were born to play. We have never really seen these two play anybody different, but I have no bigger issue with that – after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Eisenberg is reliably nervous and uptight while Culkin is expectedly energetic and witty. Eisenberg is very good in the role, but clearly Culkin is the star of the picture as he steals every scene that he’s in with such a charismatic turn in a surprisingly layered role – we are supposed to laugh at him and find him annoying in one scene, but find him endearing in another.

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That complex characterization drives this movie to greater heights, allowing it to bypass the numerous conventions of its script. The movie goes through all of those expected motions of a buddy comedy/road trip movie – meeting other tourists along the ride, famous historical landmarks and even encountering a bickering old Polish man. But what frustrated me most here is Eisenberg’s obsession with his Jewish heritage. The concentration camp sequence undeniably worked in its documentarian and eerie approach, but those constant micro-aggressions and false equivalencies regarding the genocide really annoyed me. I continue to entirely reject this notion of “generational trauma”. The fact that this movie and its director were so obsessed with these made-up ideas really got on my nerves.

A Real Pain is actually at its best when it’s focusing on its comedic elements. I miss these buddy comedies and this was a breath of fresh but familiar air that worked for me. The dialogue is excellent. Yes, the cringe comedy on display here is not for all tastes, but I found it to be well executed and amusing at times. The ending was lacking an emotional catharsis of sorts and it felt anti-climactic and like a non-ending in a way, but it gets bonus points for that sense of realism and for capturing the messiness of life.

The supporting characters were largely stereotypical and underdeveloped, but the central duo got great care and attention in both writing and acting departments. This is the type of movie that is really simple and not as sophisticated as it thinks it is in its basic themes, but it captured this central relationship so well and it got its tone so right that it ultimately worked. It’s also a very short movie at around an hour and a half, which made it thoroughly engaging.

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