A Real Pain – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Jesse Eisenberg
Writer – Jesse Eisenberg
Stars – Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Olha Bosova

Jesse Eisenberg is well-established as an actor, but less so as a writer and director. He first came to the public consciousness for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network” (2010) for which he was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor Category. He made his directorial debut in 2022 with “When You Finish Saving the World” where he performed the joint roles of writer and director. Here he combines his multiplicity of talents as he is the writer, director and lead actor.

David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg) lives in Manhattan. He’s married with one child and is firmly part of the corporate economic treadmill working in a digital advertising agency. His first cousin is Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin). They were born six days apart and were close as teenagers but their lives have diverged. Benji lives in Binghampton in Upstate New York where he follows an unstructured day-to-day existence. He has not found any career niche but gets by relying on his charm, which is immense, and being useful to friends and acquaintances. Recently, their grandmother died. She was Polish and a survivor of the concentration camps. David has arranged a guided Holocaust tour of Poland for the two of them, including Majdanek where their grandmother was incarcerated. She was a particularly powerful presence in Benji’s life and he is now even more adrift than ever.

There is a fine opening sequence where the differences in the way the two cousins operate their lives are depicted in the manner in which each of them chooses to arrive at the airport before their flight. From the start, it is clear they have very different foibles that divide them but their upbringing as close first cousins binds them. The other members of the tour are a retired Jewish couple, Mark (Daniel Oreskes) and his wife Diane (Liza Sadovy), a recently divorced Jewish woman Marcia (Jennifer Grey) and Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan) who is a Jewish convert having survived the Rwandan genocide. Each has very different reasons to be on the tour. The tour is led by an English guide James (Will Sharpe) who is knowledgeable and efficient but also manages to be slightly irritating in his inoffensive and ingratiating manner. They make an eclectic mix as their tour progresses.

The centrepiece of the film is the splendid acting of both Eisenberg and Culkin. Culkin has just been awarded a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor which is thoroughly deserved. The other members of the tour are spot on with Sharpe giving a remarkable performance as the well-meaning but awkward tour guide.  The cinematography throughout is first rate and the soundtrack of piano music by Chopin which accompanies some of the scenes in Poland is pitch-perfect.

The interplay of the relationship between the two first cousins is drawn subtly so it is apparent what keeps them rubbing along. There is more to keep them together than to drive them apart. A particularly insightful moment was Benji’s admiration of David’s feet. At an entirely different level the visit to the Majdanek Concentration Camp, which remains chillingly intact, is sobering.

While Eisenberg’s first film When You Finish Saving the World received largely positive reviews, this is the film that should launch his career as a director and writer. Eisenberg’s skill is to combine many disparate elements to create a thoughtful and memorable film which is engaging, funny, and elegantly constructed.