A Real Pain - Review

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

JESSE Eisenberg's sophomore outing as a writer-director offers something of a master-class in filmmaking for the way in which it expertly blends comedy and drama into its themes of grief, mental health, the Jewish experience and guilt.

Taken at face value, it's a road movie based around two New York cousins, David (Eisenberg himself) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), as they travel through Poland as part of a Holocaust tour financed by their late grandmother (a Holocaust survivor).

But while there's the inevitable falling out and bonding sprinkled in between comedic mishaps and deeper, more meaningful exchanges, Eisenberg's screenplay also confronts a number of bigger themes that are as provocative as they are profound.

The Jewish experience, for example, feels particularly relevant when viewed in both the historical context that Eisenberg has framed it, as well as the modern context that his characters find themselves in, and which extends beyond the film itself and into the current debate surrounding Jewish issues.

Perception therefore plays a huge part in Eisenberg's thinking. A sequence aboard a train, in which an anguished Benji confronts the hypocrisy of travelling through Poland first class, while re-treading the footsteps of those who were once herded onto carriages for mass slaughter, poses questions about de-sensitivity, tourism's place in remembering the Holocaust and the true nature of guilt.

Yet, another sequence filmed as the group tours the Majdanek concentration camp is eerily quiet and respectful, almost placing the viewer into the sequence to see, first-hand, the communal showers, the gas chamber and the oven. A view of floor to cieling cages filled with the shoes of victims is particularly sobering.

It's a tribute to Eisenberg's growth as a filmmaker, and the intelligence he permits his audience, that none of this is over-played or exploited for cheap emotion. The sequence haunts and lingers, appropriately.

And yet, Eisenberg dares to go even further. The inclusion of a Rwandan Jewish convert, named Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), into the party also nods towards wider human suffering and other genocides, many of which have received nowhere near the amount of coverage (and therefore sympathy) as the Holocaust. 

And then he even questions the role of individuality within the context of such great suffering. For while his film undoubtedly stands as a tribute to the Jewish experience and resilience in many ways, it's also about two  individuals suffering from their own emotional trauma - and how this can all too easily be overlooked or underplayed.

Benji may be outwardly charismatic, but the loss of his beloved grandmother has clearly had a profound effect on him. He's prone to outbursts - some of which can be unkind. And he's come to the tour off the back of an overdose - something that his seemingly more level-headed cousin struggles to understand.

And yet David has his own baggage to sort. He's more pragmatic and controlled. But he feels he exists in Benji's shadow, prone to insecurity and feeling uncomfortable. He has resentments. He feels overlooked, taken for granted. He lacks confidence in many ways despite being the more outwardly successful of the two.

It makes for a complicated dynamic - but provides a wonderful platform upon which both actors shine.

Culkin has walked away with the bulk of the subsequent awards (much like his character would probably do), even though the supporting actor category he has continually dominated feels a 'cheat'. He's a co-lead. But Culkin's work is exceptional. 

There's traces of his Roman Roy performance in Succession - the outer bravado and the inner anxieties - but the latter become increasingly more pronounced here. He's a wreck, possibly on the spectrum and clearly struggling with life and his place in it. A final shot of him at an airport is one to devastate. It's a performance to savour.

But Eisenberg is every bit as good, if not more subtle - although distinctly Eisenberg. The actor has stated, while promoting the film, that there is much of himself in both characters... but the traits we have come to expect from Eisenberg (that awkwardness married to biting wit and piercing intelligence) are here in abundance, while still somehow managing to feel fresh and intriguing.

There are no easy answers for either character - and therefore no convenient or pat resolution. The questions Eisenberg's screenplay asks extend beyond the film's closing moments.

And yet while much of this may risk feeling maudlin or depressing, A Real Pain still manages to emerge as a film defined as much by its warmth and humour as it does by its depth. It's a tricky balancing act to have pulled off - but Eisenberg's success in having done so makes the film's achievements all the more impressive and memorable.