A REAL PAIN (2024)

Last night Kieran Culkin was awarded his second Golden Globe for best supporting actor in his first movie category nomination for his performance in A Real Pain, a film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg (who also co-stars). I don’t disagree at all. Culkin is phenomenal here. Now, after watching a few seconds of the trailer and with no idea of the plot, I was set to watch a light, odd-couple comedy. This film is not light by any means, yet it is a movie that will evoke some laughter, while also exploring the wide and narrow scales of suffering. No easy feat.

Eisenberg and Culkin play polar opposite cousins who reunite for a Holocaust tour through Poland in honour of their recently deceased grandmother, who herself was a survivor. Culkin plays Benji, the free-spirited, possibly bipolar cousin with the unique yet familiar flair that reminds many of us of someone we know or have known. That unique someone who meets and charms people with ease, yet comes on so strong that they eventually and inevitably drive the same people away. Someone whose rawness and brutal honesty is both admired and despised and Culkin embodies this duality with sensitivity and ease. Benji is infuriating and makes you uncomfortable most of the time, yet be damned if he is not always the most interesting person on screen. Eisenberg on the other hand plays, well… Jesse Eisenberg (again). I’m not entirely sure if Eisenberg is even acting anymore, but if you need anxious, uncomfortable, rapid-fire dead pan man, he’s your guy. Having said that, he does an excellent job feeling what the audience feels (relating to anyone who has loved, hated or spent time with someone afflicted like Benji). Both characters are continually crawling out of their own skin, yet in dynamically different ways, and the tour group they are saddled up with allows for new and natural interactions, discussions and exposition. Kudos.

The reality of an industry built on visiting Holocaust sites while enjoying first-class travel, plush accommodations and fancy meals is odd and Eisenberg explores this via road movie quite well, while also delving into how people deal differently with loss, anxiety and depression. It’s a movie with a concept that is perhaps better than the movie itself, but it is well worth the watch for its confidence, most notably Culkin’s insightful performance.

WATCH OR NOT: WATCH

Additional musings: Although Eisenberg played David, the family man who’s homesick on day one of the trip, Culkin attempted to abandon the role when he realized it would take him away from his family for a month.