When Jesse Eisenberg announced himself as a leading man in the early-21st century, it was evident that he was suited to serve as a stand-in for various idiosyncratic writer-directors. Whether he was the neurotic son of a broken home in Noah Baumbach’s divorce dramedy The Squid and the Whale or a humbled literature snob in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, Eisenberg occupied the space of the awkward, only slightly self-conscious ne'er-do-well; this has been an essential part of American comedy since Woody Allen, which makes it unsurprising that Eisenberg starred in the auteur’s films Cafe Society and To Rome With Love.
Eisenberg’s directorial debut, When You Finish Saving The World, was a disappointment. The cynical coming-of-age dramedy felt like an attack on the teen comedies by the generation of A24 filmmakers. But his second feature, A Real Pain, marks the breakout of a promising voice. Unlike When You Finish Saving The World, Eisenberg takes a central role in A Real Pain as the relatively happy Jewish man David, who’s traveling to Poland to honor the memory of his recently departed grandmother. Eisenberg’s savvy enough to give the scene-stealing role to his co-star, Kieran Culkin, who appears as David’s troubled, yet upbeat cousin Benji. Culkin has managed to weave pain within an outgoing outward appearance in much of his best work, including the indie Igby Goes Down, and more recently with his award-winning role in HBO’s Succession. Culkin’s affability makes A Real Pain more effective when Eisenberg cuts through to the heart of the character.
The brilliance of A Real Pain is that it's not that different from classic road trip comedies such as Vacation or The Blues Brothers. The difference is that in A Real Pain, the destination is one of dread; David and Benji recognize that completing their trip together means accepting that someone that they cared about is gone. Despite the trip’s darkness (include a visit to a death camp), David and Benji’s relationship is still one of adolescent friendliness. It’s a deceptively effective conceit that Eisenberg utilizes to his advantage; as David and Benji grow to learn more about each other, they’re burdened by the realization that they’re unlikely to have an uninterrupted period like this ever again.
Pain takes many forms in the film, as Benji’s mental health struggles are woven in, and leaves many of the specifics up to the viewer to determine for themselves. Culkin is able to work from a defensive position, as Benji’s in a position where he desperately wants David to let loose and stop taking himself so seriously. There are several charming moments when the two indulge in adolescent antics, but Eisenberg’s typical nervousness is appropriately utilized to represent David’s anxieties about middle age. Despite feeling that he’s in a good position as a loving father and husband, David can’t help but consider why Benji is getting so much more out of their trip.
A skill that Eisenberg has is his ability to utilize silence; dialogue isn’t inherently of value, as leaving moments of simple observation are critical to the realism of A Real Pain. The most prominent instance is the film’s final stretch, in which David and Benji take an extended tour of a concentration camp in the heart of Poland. Eisenberg’s created such a buoyant, entertaining dynamic between his characters and their group of fellow travelers that he earns the gravity of the moment. David and Benji are left wordless, and with more perspective than even days earlier; understanding that a genocide occurred, but standing on the site in which their ancestors were slaughtered serves as a gripping reminder that nothing they have should be taken for granted.
A Real Pain isn’t overly pedantic in its framing, even if Eisenberg does bookend the story with dueling scenes of the two cousins at an airport. The phrase “slice of life” is overused, but A Real Pain is able to crack a window into its characters’ lives, suggesting they could exist well beyond the scope of the specific story. On its surface, A Real Pain may not seem particularly ambitious, but when taken in its entirety, it's impressive how many topics Eisenberg manages to touch on without giving short shrift to any subject of note. It’s true without ever being grating, signifying that Eisenberg knows that authenticity isn’t necessarily the antithesis of entertainment.