A Real Pain (2024) is a real shock – a real delight more than anything else. Jesse Eisenberg (writing, directing and starring) manages to turn a straightforward passion project into a wonderful bit of filmmaking and one of the year’s best so far. In a season crowded by big-budget high-concept giants lumbering their way towards the major awards, A Real Pain (2024) is the light, uncomplicated, and charming buddy comedy that works as an antidote to them all. This is a fantastic film that masks depth and sorrow with a naturalistic technique and light-hearted atmosphere – totally captivating, genuinely funny, and utterly unpretentious. A must-watch.
Great titles are full of meaning, and pain is the name of the game here. Jesse Eisenberg plays David, the nebbish, straight-laced and uncharismatic programmer who signs up for a Jewish heritage tour through Poland after the death of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. It’s a chance for him to re-engage with his cousin Benji, a man drifting through life, sensitive, difficult and outspoken, haunted by his own sense of failure. Looming in the background is the shadow of their grandmother, whose immense sacrifices and determination allowed their family to survive and thrive. How can Benji mope around, smoke weed, and spend his time navel-gazing after all that’s been done to ensure his prosperity? And – as Benji points out – how can David remain so repressed and upright when faced with the suffering of the Holocaust?
This is a film of two perspectives that gives both equal, gentle weight. Benji is a real pain, yes, but he’s also loving and charismatic, charming their baffled tour group with his free-wheeling lifestyle and sensitive outreach, while David gets a pat on the shoulder and a courteous nod. David, on the other hand, is wracked internally by his cousin’s ability to inspire others. He himself has to manage Benji’s outbursts and his trauma, and yet watching others warm to Benji and not him pierces him to the heart. There’s both comedy and tragedy wrapped up in their dynamic, and while the comedy remains in the foreground, the sombre sting of the tragedy lasts a while longer in your mind.
These are expertly written characters who feel completely natural and bounce off each other all the way through the narrative, but the supporting cast of tourists and tour guide are also excellent. There’s a lot of unsubtle spiritual discussion and open debate laced with bleak comedy, but that’s exactly how a group of strangers exploring the Holocaust would likely end up talking.
After all, what kind of person would pay for a heritage tour of a genocide? The film asks and answers that question; the cast are tastefully sketched and diverse in a really fascinating way – there are converts to Judaism who have themselves survived a genocide, spiritually lost businesspeople struggling to make sense of their world, and even a well-meaning but bumbling English tour guide attempting to maintain an emotional connection to the abstract history he’s studied so thoroughly. Jennifer Grey and Kurt Egyiawan shine here, but the writing makes all these characters sing. The main cast are, of course, excellent too. Kieran Culkin as Benji is the heart of the film and one of the best pieces of casting in recent memory, deserving all the praise he’s received.
On a technical level, too, A Real Pain (2024) manages to strike the perfect chord. It’s uncomplicated, naturalistic filmmaking to match the dialogue and narrative. It’s filmed on location in Poland, with everything feeling refreshingly realistic for anyone who’s ever travelled through Poland, from the pretty town squares to the train interiors to the restaurants. But listen, in the background – the best of Chopin forms our soundtrack, lending a rich, yearning grandness to the light-hearted events unfolding, and tracing a link between our protagonists and their Polish past.
This contrast between its comedic lightness of touch and pained depth in the background makes A Real Pain (2024) feel expertly balanced. Nor does it try to solve the problems of its characters; there’s no moral imposition on Benji or David, no attempt to force something out of them by the end. The film’s a very restrained 90 minutes. It does what it seeks to do, does it with precision and perfection, and doesn’t thrash about trying to go further with ideas that have already been well-developed and tastefully explored.
That’s a testament to great writing and great direction first and foremost; Jesse Eisenberg’s career has taken some difficult turns since The Social Network (2012) but this marks his best work, ever. In a fairly substandard range of offerings this year, he’s nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Kieran Culkin is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. They both should win.
Still: Searchlight Pictures