Released 2024. Director: Jesse Eisenberg
KIERAN CULKIN CAN BE QUITE A JERK. He’s so good at playing a prick he’s been winning awards for being obnoxious and insufferable. Emmy, Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, Screen Actors Guild, People's Choice... and an Oscar very soon according to all predictions. As if the gracelessly egotistical and entitled brat Roman Roy on hit TV series "Succession" wasn’t enough, he’s brought to life another serrated-edged, self-centred and aggravating travel companion who is what the title says.
Culkin plays Benji, who’s travelling to Poland with his cousin David. The two Jewish cousins of different temperaments were close as brothers when they were younger, now they set out to connect with their family history with a visit to see the house of their late grandma and join a Holocaust tour.
David is very much the opposite of Benji, always apologetic, dependable and super considerate of people around. The two men together on a trip is not a premise for a comedy about an odd couple. It doesn’t exploit the inherent differences for comic clashes. Instead, A Real Pain is a view of uncomfortable interpersonal dynamics, bonding and understanding as well as a probe of personal trauma and distress.
Benji doesn’t care about boundaries. He’s not a bully yet he seems to take advantage of his very kind and very patient cousin. He rails about the irony of the tour group travelling first-class on a train to see a death camp of their ancestors. He’s alternately cordial and ungracious to everyone. He berates their guide for the way he conducts the tour and often makes others wait. Privately, Benji also resents David for his stable family life against his own listlessness while David has his own bitterness about Benji’s ungrateful attitude towards life in general.
Culkin does an excellent job to make Benji unlikeable and yet instead of simply making him the bad guy, which is easy to do, the movie is a lesson in empathy. The motley group of travellers are incredibly tolerant and understanding. Benji is a troubled guy and their curiosity leads to sympathy, which turns into genuine concern after learning from David about Benji’s recent suicide attempt.
Complementing Culkin in the role of David is Jesse Eisenberg. Both actors play to their strength in recognisable character types they excel in. Eisenberg also serves as writer and director and his approach is sparing and compact, sketching his characters just enough without needing to provide big long stories of background and detail. The movie is stripped-back and character-driven without stylistic flourishes. In melding a man’s personal struggles with the pain of Holocaust trauma in his family’s past and how it casts a shadow on the present, Eisenberg has nimbly avoided sermonizing. The pathos is distilled into a small intimate drama conveyed with real emotions without leaning on grand gestures or dramatic turns.
The visit to a concentration camp and gas chamber is handled with sensitivity. When David and Benji locate the house where grandma used to live, the scene is not built up as an emotional crescendo but rather anti-climatic with the cousins’ clumsy gesture to pay their respects. What it seems to be suggesting is that the younger generation’s wish to connect with the past takes more than a fumbling, tokenistic gesture, notwithstanding its sincerity.
Eisenberg made the right choice in not giving his story a conventional ending where resolutions and directions are clearly signposted. The last shot is an echo of the opening scene showing Benji at the airport waiting for David. This time, they’ve returned to New York but instead of going home, Benji remains at the terminal. The scene is an evocation of Benji’s state of mind, his continued doubt about his own future. The airport is a place with different meanings. It’s where people say goodbye, reunite with loved ones, or a gateway to an adventure, a place of sadness, happiness, anticipation, excitement or even anxiety. Benji sits quietly amidst a bustle of passengers going in different directions. Does he know which way he’s going?
Light and wry with a keen awareness, A Real Pain is a reminder that everyone deserves our kindness, especially jerks.
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Yes, spot on review. I enjoyed this and especially being in Warsaw last year gave the film further depth for us.
Excellent review! I absolutely agree with everything you said here. I never saw "Succession" but sounds like Kieran's character here isn't too dissimilar to the one he portrayed there. I saw interviews with Jesse Eisenberg where he said he almost played Kieran's role but the producer, Emma Stone (yes the actress) talked him out of it. I can't really picture Jesse playing Kieran's role to be honest; I think they fit their respective roles here perfectly and like you said, the roles played to their strengths. This one is such a pleasant surprise that I included it on my Top 10 list of 2024.