Allan Watched "A Real Pain"
Satisfyingly poignant and heartfelt, A Real Pain manages to tackle heavy subjects in a lighthearted, welcoming way, leading to what is to date my favorite film from 2024.
Grief, Pain, and Strength
Creating a film that centers around how someone measures their daily struggles against the backdrop of knowing their ancestors survived the Holocaust is a heavy topic with many potential pitfalls. Despite this, Jesse Eisenberg threads the needle with A Real Pain to deliver a film that is both funny and heartfelt, without burying you in sadness or undermining the past. His chemistry with Kieran Culkin is pivotal to its success, but what takes it over the top is allowing Culkin to shine without much noise around his performance. Eisenberg is the lead, but Culkin is the star.
The story follows two cousins, David and Benji (played by Eisenberg and Culkin, respectively), who have planned a trip to Poland to see where their recently deceased grandmother was born and take a guided tour of landmarks associated with the Holocaust. They are cousins who grew up as brothers but have drifted apart as David became a successful tech-sales guru and Benji stayed in their hometown of Binghamton without amounting to much.
David and Benji do not shy too far from their actor’s public personas, but the script is so great and concise, that you forgive it. You are drawn in from the first scene at the airport as the two cousins embrace the opportunity to spend intimate time with each other, and their relationship is the perfect platform to navigate their shared sorrow. Each conflict succinctly and clearly covers all of the topics at once, and remarkably, this is a brilliant film with no real villain.
Eisenberg’s Brain and Culkin’s Heart
Eisenberg was due for a standout film. His run in the Aughts of The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, Zombieland, and then culminating with The Social Network was elite, and then as it happens in Hollywood, he made big-budget films that were fine, but not at the level of those first four. With A Real Pain, it feels like he has arrived as a writer/director. This was his follow-up to his directorial debut When You Finish Saving The World, and the success of each should open the door to hopefully more great productions.
Where he really shines with A Real Pain is how simple he kept things. The directing is smart but not lavish, and the script sticks to the point throughout. When I think of Eisenberg, I think of verbose monologues (there is one great one for him here) and witty banter, but he stuck to the focus of not trying to over-explain and just embrace pain, and he nailed it.
With all of that said, none of it works without Culkin. He demands your attention from moment one, and his ability to deliver the heaviest and most important lines as if they are throwaways leaves you in a daze as you take it all in. What made his portrayal so real as well is we all have people in our lives who can take over a room instantly, but inside you know they are struggling, and when it boils over it is emotionally exhausting. You want to shake Benji at times, but when we leave him at the end we imagine what he is about to set off to. That feeling of wishing a character well at the end of a story is the greatest testament to that character’s greatness.
A Lovely Tour Group
The pixie dust over the film is the strength of the supporting cast, even if we do not get much time with them. It gives the movie needed depth, and a natural sounding board for the two leads. The tour group David and Benji are on is led by James, played by Will Sharpe (season two of The White Lotus), who is an even-keeled messenger of what the group is experiencing. He battles Benji for the leadership of the group, and I think does a great job of expressing the challenges you face when delivering history in a straightforward manner, no matter the subject. That battle resonates in today’s world where we constantly must decide if we are too mad or not mad enough at the world.
The great Jennifer Grey (Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing) could have used more screen time as Marcia. Marcia’s struggles echo Grey’s own life, and she has a great line about returning home to New York after “two miserable decades in LA,” a not-so-subtle parallel to her tumultuous rise to stardom (more on that later).
She says that line in a truly great scene where the tour group meets in the hotel lobby and introduces themselves, while also getting their first chance to react to Benji. The best interaction is with Eloge (Kurt Egyiawam), who survived the Rwandan genocide and converted to Judaism. Benji reacting loudly, but technically appropriately, to his harrowing life jarred the group, but also started them off on their bonding journey. Eloge and Marcia are the types of characters that needed more, but again, Eisenberg was clearly focused on keeping this film short and sweet.
Random Thoughts
This was my favorite film of 2024 that I have seen so far. With the Oscar nominations out, I have a lot more to take in, but I adored this movie.
Culkin is surely the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The only other Academy Awards nomination was for Eisenberg’s original screenplay, which will likely lose to The Brutalist.
The use of Chopin was brilliant in many ways for this film. For one, I find his orchestrations to be the best fit for modern films compared to the other legends of his medium. He is also, of course, the most famous Polish composer of all time.
So many zingers in this script, as you would expect from its always-cutting screenwriter. “Money is just heroin for boring people” is probably the best of the bunch. Benji saying David is an “awesome guy trapped in the body of someone who is always running late” is probably second best.
Will Sharpe was so painfully boring in The White Lotus as Aubrey Plaza’s husband, and I think I figured out why: He is bad at American accents. He was so charming here, and it must be he had a hard time being in the moment while thinking about sounding like a boring American.
The other members of the group I haven’t spoken to yet are the married couple Diane and Mark, played by stage star Lisa Sadovy, and the former organizationally-corrupt principal at Verbum Dei High School in The Sopranos, Daniel Oreskes. Their characters hardly warrant mentioning, but I by law must bring up anyone who has been in The Sopranos.
Jennifer Grey was really wonderful in this film, and her life makes her uniquely qualified to tell the story of trying to embrace the great things in life while dealing with sorrow. She was very public about the survivor’s guilt she felt after the deadly crash she was in with Matthew Broderick, right as she was launched to stardom. She also was the subject of body shaming, leading to her having plastic surgery on her nose which probably ended up hurting her career.
Is this the greatest film about cousins of all time? I think it is between this and My Cousin Vinny.
Quick Hits
How many times have I seen this movie?
I have seen it twice now and liked it even more the second time around.
Where was I watching it?
Both times in my office. The first time drinking Sleepy Time Peach Tea, and the other with a room-temperature hot coffee.
Favorite trivia about the movie
This is another film that was started during lockdown. Eisenberg used Google Maps Street View to scope where he wanted to bring the film.
Favorite part
The lobby scene where they meet each other and then the photo scene in front of the war monument.
Least favorite part
I really can’t think of one. I will say the train scene gave me the most anxiety though.
Would I recommend this movie?
Yes. Watch this film.
So What Does Allan Give It?
Two Golf Thumbs Up! Overall, a score of 94. There is no overselling Keiran Culkin’s performance, or how much of a delight this film is.
