November 1, 2024
FILM: A REAL PAIN
DIRECTED BY: JESSE EISENBERG
STARRING: JESSE EISENBERG, KIERAN CULKIN, WILL SHARPE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
We’ve seen European travel stories where two people meet and fall for each other (such as, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise), where U.S. adults are unleashed into the comedic “foreigness” of various countries (Mel Stuart’s It it’s Tuesday, this Must Be Belgium), but such films rarely (ok, never) feature a Jewish heritage tour of Poland like A Real Pain does. That is the primary vehicle which takes cousins Benji and David Kaplan through the country where their deceased Jewish grandmother once lived before being ousted by the Nazi’s. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also plays David, the film becomes a story of family pain decades after the events of the Holocaust. If this sounds like a majorly sobering experience, it really isn’t at all. For the primary focus is on the cousins, their relationship, and their often humorous methods of handling the challenges of life.
Front and center is Emmy winner Kieran Culkin as Benji. His is the showier role and the more in your face character. To say that Culkin and Eisenberg are playing variations of characters we’ve seen them play before would be too obvious. Benji is a highly animated, free flowing spirit who comes off as a loose canyon but also a highly sensitive, emotionally wounded man approaching middle age. David is more tightly wound, obsessive-compulsive, and yet stable. He’s the sensible one with a wife and child at home while Benji smokes weed and wanders a bit aimlessly through life.
This development of the characters sets up some but not all of the conflicts within the narrative. Initially, there is a feeling that Eisenberg is going for a Sideways pairing where Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church were in conflict with each other from the get go. But David and Benji really do love and care for each other. Most of their struggles come from within. Benji lashes out and drugs himself for comfort. David takes anti-anxiety medication and keeps his world immersed in his fairly soul crunching career selling internet ads.
Most of the film features the two characters traveling with a guide, played by Will Sharpe, and four other tourists (including the woefully underrated Jennifer Grey.) They don’t get much character development, which could have been interesting but it would have taken away from Benji and David’s story. Benji is so much the center of the story that at times it becomes exhausting watching and listening to his various rants. He is one of the “real pains” of the film’s title. Culkin may be a bit over the top at times, but Eisenberg’s script allows for plenty of comedown time and allows Culkin to tackle some pure inner anguish which the actor certainly learned to master during his years on Succession.
The ultimate theme here is pain and how people deal with the inherited pain of the Holocaust vs. modern every day suffering. One is an atrocity while the other is a fact of life. Some, like Benji, feel it and live it on a deep level while others like David keep themselves busy and go about life in spite of history and daily troubles.
Poland is beautifully and realistically on display through Director of Photographer Michael Dymek’s work. Yes, the landscapes are nicely captured (having been to Poland myself it made me long for some of the train and car rides through the sprawling countryside) but it is the small towns with their modest dwellings and modern Warsaw that provide a more complete portrait of what Poland was and has become in the last eighty years.
The tone of the film is relatively light but given the personalities of Benji and David, that tone has its comedic and serious moments. Of course, the most sobering scene occurs when the group visits a former concentration camp. Eisenberg wisely eschews any unnecessary banter and lightness for a more quiet and reflective moment with the characters.
This is a film to be enjoyed on a number of levels: the writing, characters, performances, and scenery. It is also an interesting film to reflect on concerning pain, history, and family relationships long after the credits roll.
A Real Pain premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It opens in select theaters today and will be released wide on November 15.
FILM: A REAL PAIN
DIRECTED BY: JESSE EISENBERG
STARRING: JESSE EISENBERG, KIERAN CULKIN, WILL SHARPE
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
We’ve seen European travel stories where two people meet and fall for each other (such as, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise), where U.S. adults are unleashed into the comedic “foreigness” of various countries (Mel Stuart’s It it’s Tuesday, this Must Be Belgium), but such films rarely (ok, never) feature a Jewish heritage tour of Poland like A Real Pain does. That is the primary vehicle which takes cousins Benji and David Kaplan through the country where their deceased Jewish grandmother once lived before being ousted by the Nazi’s. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also plays David, the film becomes a story of family pain decades after the events of the Holocaust. If this sounds like a majorly sobering experience, it really isn’t at all. For the primary focus is on the cousins, their relationship, and their often humorous methods of handling the challenges of life.
Front and center is Emmy winner Kieran Culkin as Benji. His is the showier role and the more in your face character. To say that Culkin and Eisenberg are playing variations of characters we’ve seen them play before would be too obvious. Benji is a highly animated, free flowing spirit who comes off as a loose canyon but also a highly sensitive, emotionally wounded man approaching middle age. David is more tightly wound, obsessive-compulsive, and yet stable. He’s the sensible one with a wife and child at home while Benji smokes weed and wanders a bit aimlessly through life.
This development of the characters sets up some but not all of the conflicts within the narrative. Initially, there is a feeling that Eisenberg is going for a Sideways pairing where Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church were in conflict with each other from the get go. But David and Benji really do love and care for each other. Most of their struggles come from within. Benji lashes out and drugs himself for comfort. David takes anti-anxiety medication and keeps his world immersed in his fairly soul crunching career selling internet ads.
Most of the film features the two characters traveling with a guide, played by Will Sharpe, and four other tourists (including the woefully underrated Jennifer Grey.) They don’t get much character development, which could have been interesting but it would have taken away from Benji and David’s story. Benji is so much the center of the story that at times it becomes exhausting watching and listening to his various rants. He is one of the “real pains” of the film’s title. Culkin may be a bit over the top at times, but Eisenberg’s script allows for plenty of comedown time and allows Culkin to tackle some pure inner anguish which the actor certainly learned to master during his years on Succession.
The ultimate theme here is pain and how people deal with the inherited pain of the Holocaust vs. modern every day suffering. One is an atrocity while the other is a fact of life. Some, like Benji, feel it and live it on a deep level while others like David keep themselves busy and go about life in spite of history and daily troubles.
Poland is beautifully and realistically on display through Director of Photographer Michael Dymek’s work. Yes, the landscapes are nicely captured (having been to Poland myself it made me long for some of the train and car rides through the sprawling countryside) but it is the small towns with their modest dwellings and modern Warsaw that provide a more complete portrait of what Poland was and has become in the last eighty years.
The tone of the film is relatively light but given the personalities of Benji and David, that tone has its comedic and serious moments. Of course, the most sobering scene occurs when the group visits a former concentration camp. Eisenberg wisely eschews any unnecessary banter and lightness for a more quiet and reflective moment with the characters.
This is a film to be enjoyed on a number of levels: the writing, characters, performances, and scenery. It is also an interesting film to reflect on concerning pain, history, and family relationships long after the credits roll.
A Real Pain premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It opens in select theaters today and will be released wide on November 15.