A Real Pain
Dir: Jesse Eisenberg
Scr: Jesse Eisenberg
Pho: Michal Dymek
Ed: Robert Nassau
Premiere: Nov. 1, 2024
90 min.
Jesse Eisenberg is a familiar face on screen. His nervous, stuttering persona has graced many movies, including The Social Network and Zombieland. However, he’s an aspiring screenwriter and director as well. A Real Pain is his most effective effort to date.
It’s the story of two cousins, the uptight Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, whose character is a hodgepodge of strong feelings, earnestly expressed. They were raised together almost as brothers, so their reunion after what seems to have been a few years is a study in what changes and what does not change in people as they grow older.
The cousins are on a vacation together, if you can call it that. They are touring the concentration camps in Poland. This somber journey is punctuated by the incessant irritation of Eisenberg, who can’t handle the exuberant informality of Culkin’s character. It’s a movie full of quirky humor, that works despite the very serious backdrop to it all.
In the end, Eisenberg gives us no great revelations, no climactic incident. People are who they are, he seems to be saying, in many ways immutable. The grace that comes with accepting that is an aspect of growing up not often paid attention to. Eisenberg gives us an artfully crafted description of that.
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