‘A Real Pain’ Review by Alice Frost

Equal parts deadpan-comedy and raw emotion, A Real Pain, takes a realist and refreshingly vulnerable approach to the buddy-comedy, roadtrip-esque genre.

In the follow up to his 2022 directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World, Jesse Eisenburg’s second feature, A Real Pain, follows estranged cousins, David (Eisenberg) and Benji, played by the criminally entertaining Kieran Culkin, who embark on a trip to Poland together. Following the recent death of their beloved Grandma Dory, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust, they intend to honour her by visiting her homeland which leads them to retrace their painful family history, while simultaneously prompting them to confront their own personal trauma in the present.

Though this is by no means a “Holocaust film”, Eisenburg successfully brings lightness to a film which explores an incredibly dark and brutal time in history. In the film’s rawest and most powerful scene, as part of a tour group, David and Benji visit Majdanek concentration camp – this is the first time a narrative feature has been allowed to shoot on location at an actual concentration camp. Culkin explained how the scene didn’t feel like they were on a film set, noting how he appreciated Eisenburg’s “respectful approach” to setting up the cameras and allowing the cast to simply walk through and experience the camp uninhibited.

Though Culkin’s Benji is a total scene-stealer and by and large the star of the film – with Vanity Fair predicting that he could be a nominee for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – David’s poignant monologue whilst at dinner with the other tour group members is sure to strike a chord, particularly with audiences who struggle with their own family rivalries and jealousies. David tearfully shares his frustration over Benji’s pot-head, slacker lifestyle and yet total ease and ability to light up a room and touch everyone in it: “I loathe him, and I hate him and I want to be him”.

Speaking to IndieWire, Culkin admitted how he almost wasn’t part of the film, explaining that off the back of his Emmy-winning role in Succession, he was looking forward to some free time and tried to find a reason to exit the film. But after reading the script for a third time, hoping to “find some flaw in it” he instead found himself laughing out loud and concluded that he “needed to do this.”

“I wanted it to be a relatable and accessible movie that can be fun and sad and all of the things that would happen when you go on a tour to a fraught place with your childhood friend”. Elaborating on this further for the Los Angeles Times, Eisenburg explained that he didn’t want to make a film that felt “so impenetrable that it becomes impossible to relate [to]”.

With A Real Pain, Eisenburg manages to successfully balance out the components that make this film so compelling: expertly witty, dry comedy intertwined with the more crippling elements of life – grief, guilt, jealousy and pain. On the whole, for a film that’s grappling with some painfully real and heavy topics, it’s a touching watch with a punchy script, paired with some stellar performances.

A Real Pain will debut in UK cinemas on January 8th 2025.