The two actors play odd-couple cousins who travel to Poland to honor their Holocaust survivor grandmother.
It’s been a week since Kieran Culkin won an Emmy for his portrayal of Roman Roy in the final season of Succession, and now, he’s captivating audiences at the Sundance Film Festival with a performance that is equally impressive.
Culkin stars opposite Jesse Eisenberg in “A Real Pain,” Eisenberg’s intimate and affecting dramedy about Jewish cousins on a Holocaust memorial tour through Poland. Eisenberg writes, directs, and stars as the uptight New Yorker David Kaplan, but it’s Culkin who commands the screen as David’s extroverted cousin Benji. The two men grew up practically as brothers, born just a few weeks apart. However, as adults, they have become distant, with age only emphasizing their differences. David is neurotic, responsible, and soft-spoken, while Benji moves like a human hurricane. He is a charismatic, fast-talking man-child who can be both insightfully kind and devastatingly selfish. Together, they make an all-time comedic odd couple, with both actors showcasing their comedic and dramatic talents.
Eisenberg has written and directed numerous projects for the stage. “A Real Pain” is the second film he has directed, following 2022’s “When You Finish Saving the World.” His thoughtful script chronicles Benji and David’s odyssey from start to finish, following the unlikely pair as they embark on a tour to honor their late grandmother, who grew up in Poland and survived internment in a concentration camp. Guided by a British history enthusiast, Will Sharpe, they join others on similar pilgrimages, all hoping to gain a new understanding and connect to their Jewish roots. The group includes a recent divorcee (Jennifer Grey), a retired couple (Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes), and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who has since converted to Judaism (Kurt Egyiawan). Together, this diverse group travels through Warsaw and Lublin, striving to delve into the country’s history and culture.
Benji inadvertently takes charge of the group with his charisma, connecting with his tourmates and convincing them to strike absurd poses in front of a memorial statue. Culkin imbues the character with unfiltered and manic energy, and together, he and Eisenberg sparkle with comedic chemistry, bickering in a way that only family members can. But for all his bluster, Benji is adrift, and David starts to worry that his gregarious cousin might be suffering more than he lets on.
The central question at the heart of Benji and David’s journey is how to deal with emotional pain — whether it be day-to-day pain, existential pain, or ancestral pain. Even before the trip begins, both Benji and David are hurting in different ways, floundering after the death of their grandmother and unsure about their paths in life. David, an introvert, keeps his anxieties close to his chest. “I feel that my pain is unexceptional,” he admits at one point, “so I don’t feel the need to burden everybody with it.” In contrast, Benji is so overwhelmed with emotions that he can’t help but lash out like an overstimulated child, criticizing their guide for not making the tour feel “real” enough and sniping at David.
In clumsier hands, “A Real Pain” could have felt disjointed, especially when David and Benji are smoking weed on a rooftop in one scene and walking through the Majdanek concentration camp in another. A film that grapples with the legacy of the Holocaust doesn’t exactly make for automatic comedy, but Eisenberg deftly juggles the film’s shifting tones, evoking genuine laughs in some scenes while maintaining a somber respect in others. It helps that both Eisenberg and Culkin bring a grounded clarity to David and Benji, even when the two cousins are stuck in absurd circumstances. (Emma Stone and her husband, Dave McCary, produced the film. At a post-screening Q&A, Eisenberg thanked Stone for suggesting one of the funniest scenes, where Benji and David accidentally miss their train stop.) The result is a Holocaust film that is both hilarious and devastatingly real, anchored by Culkin’s unforgettable performance. Grade: B+
