When Benji Kaplan goes to Poland to see where his Holocaust survivor grandmother grew up, a number of difficult feelings arise. Benji, played by Kieran Culkin, who won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Roman Roy on HBO’s “Succession” is trying to take power over his own life in the new film “A Real Pain.”
Benji is single, unemployed, and stuck living in Binghamton, New York. In comparison, his cousin David, played by Jewish actor Jesse Eisenberg, has a wife, a cute kid, and a job in digital ad sales.
It’s David’s idea to go on a group trip that will take them to different sites, including Majdanek, which was a concentration camp in Lublin, Poland. The cousin are accompanied by a tour guide, a couple, a divorced woman, and a Rwandan Jewish convert.
Guilt versus remembrance
Do Jews in their 20s and 30s have it too easy? Benji thinks there is something drastically wrong about eating nice food on a train when Jews during the Holocaust were starved and packed in trains like animals. But David thinks his cousin is being too dramatic and one can enjoy a trip and not have to physically suffer while adequately commemorating the Holocaust and learning its history.
Yet when they arrive at a monument for resistance fighters, Benji poses for photos and gets the others in the group to do so as well. David is uncomfortable, taking the picture but refusing be in them. At one cemetery, Benji tells the guide that he is talking too much, and they should interact with Polish people.
“A Real Pain” documents the trip through the eyes of the two grandsons who are reckoning with their places in the world as Jewish men whose family was impacted by the Holocaust. As a result, it was an interesting choice not to have a Holocaust survivor in the film and no real depictions or discussions on antisemitism in the film.
Strengthening familial divide while mourning the dead
In the mocking dialogue between Benji and David, Culkin and Eisenberg have great chemistry, and these moments are the best of the film. A joke about weed in the airport sets a good tone and the script allows for a balance of humor, while dealing with the Holocaust in a serious fashion.
Benji is jealous that he is alone and not established in his life, and as a defense mechanism, he mocks David’s job selling digital ads. At the same time, David is jealous that while he is often nervous, Benji can light up a room with his charm and instantly make friends, even after saying crude things.
Culkin is fantastic in his role and does brings some of the bluntness and the humor of his “Succession” character to this role. He will certainly get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Culkin’s portrayal makes the audience roots for Benji as he is trying to address his demons; while he is brutally honest and blunt with others, he may be lying to himself.
Eisenberg, who once played a Hasidic man in “Holy Rollers” and starred as Jewish Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” is excellent as someone who is trying to lift up his cousin, but is also honest about his own weaknesses and vulnerability. His performance is also worthy of an Oscar nomination, but that category will be tougher to break into with Jewish actors Adrien Brody and Timothee Chalamet, and Joseph Fiennes seen as the favorites.
The two actors spoke about their roles, and Eisenberg said that the story resonated with him because his Ashkenazi family is from Poland.
Humanizing Jewish men
It’s noteworthy that Culkin’s character is not afraid to express his emotions. He cries and Eisenberg nearly does. While the latter often is cast as the neurotic character, in “A Real Pain” he is distinctively caring and loving toward his cousin. Dealing with one’s feelings is something that everyone should do, but films more often portray men as not wanting to seem weak if they have emotions to deal with.
The film doesn’t try too hard and lets the actors speak for themselves — or stay silent when they should be, like the scene where they visit the gas chambers.
While “A Real Pain” stands out
Written and directed by Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” is extremely moving and will likely make you cry.
Audience members can easily picture how Benji may have interacted with his grandmother and the close bond they shared. Grandchildren of Holocaust survivors often have guilt or wish they could have talked more with their grandparents about what they went through. This film doesn’t shy from the realities of being the grandchild of a survivor.
“A Real Pain” is not a film that hits you over the head with images of atrocities, but rather urges us to go through life with not only humor and conviction, but also with a purpose. Whereas some films about the Holocaust are heavy handed, this one has a light touch and will likely provoke questions in the minds of the viewer about their own family.
Benji feels that perhaps he deserves difficulties in life but outwardly looks on top of the world, while David is full of nerves on the outside but strong on the inside. Most will see a part of themselves in each character. There is also a great metaphor for missing one’s stop on a train and trying to reconnect and figure out where they should be.
“A Real Pain” is a timely film that will likely inspire people to examine where they are in their lives and if they’re doing too much or not enough, be it in their jobs, families, or honoring their history. You can bank on it getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The movie asks about the connections we keep, the ones we let go of, and how we know if we’re wrong or right. There is also the realization that sadness about being part of a religion and ethnicity that has been so uniquely hunted brings sadness but also the realization that one cannot let those feelings overtake one’s life.
The film recently earned numerous Golden Globe Nominations including: Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy, Best Screenplay-Motion Picture for Eisenberg. Eisenberg and Culkin, respectively, earned nominations for Best Male Actor in a Leading Role-Musical or Comedy and Best Male Actor In A Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture.
