“A Real Pain” is an engaging, thought-provoking film that will draw you in as its nuances unravel. Writer and director Jesse Eisenberg gives us a pitch-perfect story that is ostensibly about two cousins who reunite to go on a Holocaust tour of Poland to honor their grandmother’s recent death.
Although there is a brief shot of Benji (Kieran Culkin) sitting at the crowded airport, we meet David (Eisenberg) first, as he nervously travels to meet him. Clearly, he is a neurotic, “nervous Nellie,” making us initially think that he is perhaps the “real pain.”
Ah, but then, when the two meet at the airport, Benji’s exuberant, carefree spirit — informing David that he picked up a little weed for the trip — introduces the idea that he will be the pain. Initially, Benji seems cool with the world, and a friend to everyone, while straight-laced David is overly concerned with what others will think, and being proper. We learn that he has taken a week off from his job as a digital ad salesperson, leaving his wife and young son behind, to take Benji on this trip after something sad has occurred. Benji reassures him he is fine, and moves along at a merry pace, but the mystery lingers.
Upon landing in Poland, the cousins join their fellow travelers, led by British tour guide James (Will Sharpe), who is not Jewish but fascinated by the Jewish experience. He is knowledgeable, is accustomed to guiding a group through sensitive issues, and we feel confident in his capable hands. Marcia (Jennifer Grey) is reeling from being recently divorced, and she has come to honor her mother, who, as did Benji and David’s grandmother, survived the horrors of the concentration camps. The relatives of Diane (Liza Sadovy) and her husband Mark (Daniel Oreskes) came over before the war, and Mark laughingly refers to his family as “Mayflower Jews.”
We get our first taste of another side of Benji when Eloje (Kurt Egyiawan), a Rwandan genocide survivor who has found solace in converting to Judaism, introduces himself. Benji is blown away, overtly relating to his pain. As the story progresses, Benji’s quixotic personality — swinging from charming to deeply sensitive to others’ feelings — reveals his tender side that skates on the edge of mental stability. At one point, he declares, “People can’t walk around the world being happy all the time.” But the next minute, he moves on.
As the tour progresses, the group becomes a family. Stories are shared, burdens revealed, and affection grows among them.
But Benji and David’s complex relationship, full of love and buried darker feelings, sits at the heart of the film. As they interact, the two become richly complex characters. Benji says of David, “You’re an awesome guy who’s stuck inside a body who’s always running late. I’ve got to fish that guy out every time I see you.” And there are times when David hesitantly joins Benji’s antic adventures to the wild side.
At one point, when the group is eating in a restaurant, Benji makes a scene and runs off. David confesses, “I love him, and I hate him … And I want to be him. And I can’t save him.”
Interestingly, the tour of this complex country itself echoes the dichotomy within the film, and perhaps the country. While the group travels from site to site, we see many scenes of modern Poland, while James peels back its Jewish history, which, other than in monuments, is largely erased.
But, as James says at one point to the group, the trip “will be a tour about pain and a tour that celebrates people.” And this is, at its core, exactly what “A Real Pain” is all about.
“A Real Pain” at the M.V. Film Center begins on Nov. 21. For tickets, information, and a trailer, visit mvfilmsociety.com/2024/10/a-real-pain.
