Movie Review: Jesse Eisenberg’s ‘A Real Pain’ Has an Indie Vibe and an Apt Title

Considering how enjoyable Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples was a few months ago, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain should have been just as good. This promised to be another indie flick with cringe humor, neurotic characters and a swift runtime.

But, surprisingly, it didn’t do anything for me. Maybe it was a case of misplaced expectations, and it was technically fine, but it was just a little irritating.

Modern day cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) meet up for the first time in years to backpack around Poland as part of a Holocaust tour group to honor their deceased grandmother. Though the two were close as children, as adults their personalities could not be more different.

David, neurotic and introverted, has to constantly apologize for Benji’s mood swings and outbursts, while animated Benji thinks David needs to lighten up and have more fun after settling down with a wife and child. 

Will Sharpe plays the tour guide, and Jennifer Grey and Kurt Egyiawan co-star as fellow tourists on the experience. Eisenberg does triple duty as star, director and writer of A Real Pain, while Culkin’s ex-girlfriend Emma Stone is credited as a producer.

On a technical level, the new picture is fine and the general premise is very promising. Eisenberg is clearly channeling the indie features of a decade or so ago, and the film is tonally very much what you would expect from him as a filmmaker after being known for playing loners and outcasts as an actor. The cinematography of contemporary Poland is refreshing, and the supporting cast is good. I especially liked seeing Grey on the big screen again since her heyday in the 1980s.

I think my main problem with A Real Pain is the execution of Culkin’s Benji. The way he’s presented, I’m sure we’re supposed to pity him for being both pathetic and depressing, kind of a millennial version of John Candy’s Del Griffith in John Hughes’ holiday classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987). But for me, I just found him way too grating and irritating, even with the deliberate performance and sad backstory.

So while I might recommend A Real Pain for the unique Jewish and Polish perspectives, I’m not sure how many people will be sold on the characters’ personalities as a whole.