‘A Real Pain’ review: Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin charm as odd-couple cousins

After their grandmother’s death, two estranged cousins — the professional David (writer/director Jesse Eisenberg) and charismatic slacker Benji (Kieran Culkin) — reunite for a trip to her native Poland, where they hope to learn more about where she grew up and what she survived in the Holocaust. In their childhoods, the pair was inseparable, but years of distance have set in until this moment. In her will, their grandmother set aside funds for her grandsons to rediscover their family roots, and David signs them up for a tour that retraces Jewish history in Poland, including a stop at a concentration camp. Along the way, they meet other fellow travelers looking to learn more about their own families and the history of the Jewish community in Poland before and after WWII. Their trip has the potential to bring them closer to their family’s history and each other — if only they can stand each other’s company. 

A Real Pain is a brief but profound journey into reconnecting with one’s family history, both in the sense of generations ago and the present day. Along the way, the two cousins make the perfect odd couple, with David fretting many details and Benji willing to shake things up at a moment’s notice. The tensions come to a head many times over the trip, but despite David’s frustrations and Benji’s carefree spirit, the antics reveal a more complicated dynamic — one that has grown and soured over the years, and that might be salvaged from this trip their grandmother stipulated in her will. Yes, A Real Pain is a movie about remembering the Holocaust, but it’s funny and heartwarming, a rare combination when considering the subject matter. 

A Real Pain is a showcase for Jesse Eisenberg’s filmmaking. 

Credit: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

At a brisk 90 minutes, no part of A Real Pain feels too long or drawn out. Written and directed by Eisenberg, the follow-up to his debut feature When You Finish Saving the World moves efficiently along the various highs and lows of the story, allowing each of the main characters to develop their backstories and idiosyncrasies. The comedy is sharp, landing quickly and punctuated by just the right kind of reaction shot, usually from David as he endures one his cousin’s latest outburst. The punchlines are sometimes witty, sometimes broad, but the central rapport between the cousins drives everything. And as chaotic as their presence might be in the group, it’s heartwarming to see them embraced by strangers and how their dynamic within the group subverts expectations. Eisenberg knows just the emotional beats to hit — the silent looks to underscore unsaid feelings, and when to let Culkin take the spotlight and when to let the somber notes of the film play it straight.

As the lead, Eisenberg’s character is something of a variation of roles we’ve seen him take on elsewhere: a driven (if perhaps slightly neurotic) character who prioritizes order, logic, and efficiency, not too dissimilar from his character in the TV series Fleishman Is in Trouble. But he’s there to serve as a kind of “straight man” for Culkin’s Benji to rebel against, a model of decorum who’s easily mortified and frustrated but trying his greatest to keep it in so that the pair can enjoy the trip. 

Eisenberg and cinematographer Michal Dymek give A Real Pain a kind of autumnal glow, and these amber-like tones invite feelings of nostalgia and remembrance. It also gives their tour a certain romanticized sheen — not too hot, not too cold, perfect as a postcard  — until the reality of their family’s history in Poland punctures the illusion. 

A Real Pain is also a chance for Culkin to showcase his acting chops.

Credit: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Kieran Culkin didn’t steal as many hearts as he did in Succession by playing a well-behaved role model. As Roman, he was an unrepentant jerk with a vulnerable side, a proverbial cannonball swinging chaotically from one cause célèbre to the next. As Benji, he’s significantly toned down, still a jerk who perhaps speaks his mind so freely that he may hurt people in the process, but as David reveals, Benji is also going through his own troubles after the death of his beloved grandmother. The script avoids therapeutic but cliched expository dumps from Benji, leaving it up to Culkin to hint at his character’s inner turmoil and Eisenberg’s David to fill in the backstory Benji isn’t keen to share on his own. Behind the confident bravado of the resourceful slacker who mailed himself weed in another country is someone really struggling with grief and purpose.

A Real Pain reflects the different ways family members cope (or don’t) with their ancestors’ history, especially when there is inherited trauma involved. David, more so than Benji, feels guilty for the horrors his grandmother experienced in the Holocaust, her immigration to America, and the struggles she faced reestablishing herself in another part of the world. These details of their grandmother’s life don’t seem to haunt Benji in the same way, but the historical aspects of the tour move him more than others in the group. For example, while traveling to their next tour stop, he nervously paces a train when thinking about how Jews like their grandmother were transported to concentration camps decades earlier. In another poignant scene, he asks the group’s well-meaning tour guide James (Will Sharpe, White Lotus) to stop sharing facts and let them take in the silence at a Jewish cemetery. It’s a level of unpredictability that can be funny yet sincere, and Culkin threads the needle between emotions with surprising acuity.

Despite its title, A Real Pain is genuinely funny. Benji is such an extraordinary, off-beat character, yet he seems like someone you might know from work or in your own family gatherings. As the beleaguered grown-up who’s both exasperated by his cousin’s antics but also enjoys reconnecting with his childhood companion, David is the perfect foil for Benji to play off — sometimes indirectly like when he says something outrageous, and David is left with a quizzical, helpless look on his face. Over the course of their tour through Poland, they reveal more about themselves and their pasts to their fellow travelers, which affects how the audience perceives their relationship and how the tour group sees them moving forward.

The supporting cast of A Real Pain elevates the star performers.

Credit: Agata Grzybowska / Searchlight Pictures

The tour David and Benji joins takes them through various landmarks of Jewish history in Poland, stopping at statues and former Jewish neighborhoods that were displaced during the Holocaust. While the tour is not strictly for the descendants of Holocaust survivors, many of those alongside David and Benji are also trying to learn more about their family history. While Sharpe’s earnest tour guide leads the way, Jennifer Grey’s divorced mom is similarly looking to reconnect with her family’s roots. The ensemble also includes Kurt Egyiawan as a Jewish convert who survived the Rwandan genocide, whom Benji immediately takes a liking to, and a retired couple played by Daniel Oreskes and Liza Sadovy, who are less charmed by Benji’s behavior. Through them, we also see how different people process and grieve their family’s tragedies and what this trip means to them. 

A Real Pain isn’t necessarily asking bigger questions about current events; it’s focused specifically on this family and their experiences, making it feel relatable to anyone whose family migrated to the States in the wake of a historical event. It’s short and sweet, striking a delicate balance between the heaviness of the cousins’ trip and the pair’s mismatched dynamic. And like many vacations, A Real Pain feels like it’s over too soon, but it lasts just long enough to avoid overstaying its welcome. It’s a bittersweet tribute to the journeys our ancestors took to bring us to where we are today and coping with the troubled relationships we may share with our present-day relatives. 

A Real Pain is now in theaters.