A Real Pain review: Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg bring humour and heartbreak to this one of a kind, road trip movie!

A Real Pain is about a poignant love-hate relationship between two jewish American cousins and here’s why you shouldn’t be missing out on it this weekend!

A Real Pain review: Once in a while there comes a movie that on the surface looks like a simple slice of life story, but leaves us with an ache in our hearts and tears in our eyes. Last year, it was Past Lives and this year it’s Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. I have a separate category for these kinds of films, I call them my ‘soup for the soul but painful’ genre. Simply because movies like A Real Pain portray the complexities of human relationships with immense depth. The kind that triggers the vulnerability inside you when you were least expecting it.

A Real Pain starts as a comedy where you see two cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) embark on their journey to Poland in honor of their late grandmother’s memory, who was a holocaust survivor. The two grandsons had very different relationships with their grandmother simply because they were poles apart as individuals. David is the overthinker who does everything by the book. He has a beautiful wife, a kid, a well paying job, he has decent manners and he is that socially awkward kid who barely makes an impression. Benji, on the other hand, reeks of charm and wit. He lights up every room he walks into, he has absolutely no filter and somehow people never get mad at him for that, it only garners him more love if anything. He is also still getting wasted in his mom’s basement, with little to no direction about his future. But don’t mistake his extroverted personality for him being content with his life. As the story progresses, you realize how desperately he seeks peace, and he does get a little bit of that when he gets to spend time with his cousin who is more than just a distant relative to him.

Also Read: Past Lives review: A compelling narrative of love beyond time, destiny and ‘what could’ve been’

David and Benji were joint by the hip as kids. They literally wouldn’t spend a day apart. But as life happened, David moved forward, Benji didn’t. The movie plays out this irony for you where even after getting everything he wants, you can still see a hint of envy in David’s eyes for Benji. You can see how he still finds him so cool for being able to let loose and live life the way he wants; he's smoothly able to make friends on this tour just by being himself and everyone fell in love with him, when David was just a passing thought for them at best. Their sibling revelry and rivalry is also quite relatable. One moment they’re bickering about the silliest things and the next moment they realize they are each other’s ride or die. 

A Real Pain is Jesse Eisenberg’s second directorial and we need more of his directed-written and starred films, IMO! He wrote a story that hits so close to home for him and you can see his entire thought process unravel in front of you. Every dialogue, every silence, every different shot that’s taken in the movie has a reason behind it and it all cleverly comes together in the end. One of my favorite scenes in the film where I was almost brought to tears was when David had a rather intense moment in the story and it is one I will take a while to get over! Both Kieran and Jesse play characters that seem very close to their real life personalities but it completely works here as the story calls for it. 

Kieran Culkin as Benji is the highlight of this film. He steals the show through and through and it’s difficult to focus on anything else but him when he is on-screen. Benji reminds you a lot of Culkin’s other famous character from Succession, Roman Roy. Both the characters are pioneers of tongue and cheek humour, and both characters are an introvert’s absolute nightmare! Benji  will be fooling around with everyone on the tour with him and the next moment he will be calling everyone out on enjoying luxury in a country that has brought so much grief to their ancestors. He is full of unpredictability and there’s no one who could’ve done justice to that other than Culkin.

He also delivers one of the most devastating climaxes I’ve watched in a while. The shift in his eyes that wander around an airport full of people is heart breakingly beautiful. The title of the film appears in the start and the end of the film and the definition of ‘pain’ is so different at both of those points. A Real Pain, in all its glory, is about setting on a path of self discovery whilst deep diving into the past of your ancestors. It reminds you of the phrase ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’ as it’s something we feel often as adults. It sure is a masterclass in blending comedy with raw vulnerability which makes it a standout in its genre.  

A Real Pain is currently streaming at a theatre near you!

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