‘A Real Pain’ review: Jesse Eisenberg’s devastating tragicomedy is a must see

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg star in one of the year’s most incisive, poignant comedy dramas, A Real Pain. Written and directed with sensitivity and skill by Eisenberg, it’s a character study perfectly tailored to both actors’ personas. The story of two New Yorker cousins on a restorative trip to Poland, The Social Network star Eisenberg is David, the nervy, anxious family man. Culkin’s Benji is the polar opposite, outgoing and verbose but also damaged. It’s a role that seems to riff on his character in HBO’s Succession.

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On the surface, these cousins are in Europe to explore their roots and visit the home of their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. They join a tour run by an unassuming British guide named James (Will Sharpe), rubbing shoulders with a rag-tag group including middle-aged divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey) and Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), a Rwandan refugee who has converted to Judaism. Starting in Warsaw, the group zig-zags across Poland, taking in the sights including a sombre visit to a concentration camp.

A Real Pain isn’t the only recent film to use the Holocaust to explore familial relations. Last year Treasure saw a mismatched Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham, as a Rolling Stone reporter, take a similar journey as they attempted to reconcile. But Eisenberg’s film is a far leaner, wittier and more moving experience, not least because the performances are so on-the-nose. Scripted too with real verve, Eisenberg’s nomination for Best Original Screenplay at this year’s Academy Awards is richly deserved.

Culkin – a Golden Globe winner and favourite to take the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – turns on a dime here. One minute Benji is bouncing off the walls, rolling up the weed he’s posted in advance to their hotel or joyously encouraging his fellow travellers to take a picture at the Warsaw Uprising memorial. The next he’s oversharing at dinner or venting his concern about riding in the first-class compartment of a train, the same method of transport that ferried so many Jewish people to the death camps.

Eisenberg deserves due credit for dealing with the Holocaust and the collective guilt third-generation survivors feel with real assurance. The film always treats the subject with due reverence but A Real Pain never feels maudlin or sentimental. It’s a film that unpacks its layers gradually, taking its time before the real pain the title refers to is revealed. By the time it does Culkin is in full swing, elevating this to an impressive study of repressed emotional trauma – perhaps even manic depression.

Making just his second film as director, following 2022’s When You Finish Saving The World, Eisenberg graciously lets his co-star take centre stage but everyone here contributes to the ensemble, especially Sharpe who nails the knowledgeable, ultra-sensitive Brit who treads softly across this torturous historical path. A road movie that really makes you think about the stops it makes, there is real pain inside this film; Eisenberg and his cast do well to ensure you’ll feel every moment of it.