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A Real Pain review: Kieran Culkin steals the show in this sharply observed drama
HT at Sundance | A road trip movie involving a tour with mismatched cousins sheds light on the vulnerabilities of surviving with pain and suffering.
A dramedy that chronicles a tour of the Holocaust? Wait a minute, does that ring a bell? Nitesh Tiwari's Bawaal with its disastrous use of Auschwitz as a metaphor for relationship issues immediately comes to mind. None of that embarrassment occurs in A Real Pain, the new film by actor-director Jesse Eisenberg, which marked its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. For all its playfulness and humour, A Real Pain strikes an intimate balance between the horrifying history of the Holocaust and the emotional anxieties of losing someone in the present. It sounds somewhat strange but Eisenberg deftly handles the film's shifting tone. (Also read: Girls Will Be Girls review: Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal’s maiden production portraits a complex mother-daughter relationship)
The premise
Kieran Culkin, fresh off an Emmy win for playing Roman Roy in the final season of Succession, gives another peerless performance as Benji, the man-child cousin of the uptight New Yorker David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg in a very Jesse Eisenberg kind of a role). They are cousins who have drifted apart in the last few years, and are now set for Poland to visit their grandmother's homeland, and also take part in the Holocaust Tour in the meantime.
A Real Pain is as tightly wound in its first half as the awkward and shy David. He and Benji could not be more different. Benji is the type of guy brimming with emotions. One who will not resist for a moment to say what he feels, whereas David would think the situation from a thousand different ways even before uttering a word. Both of them are joined by a tour party which is led by James (Will Sharpe from The White Lotus), who is an Oxford scholar obsessed with stating the facts of what he speaks, and a bunch of other members. One of them is a refugee who introduces himself in a thoughtful manner, only for Benji to break in with a 'Oh, snap!' David apologizes for him, the first among many in the tour.
Final thoughts
Benji can be exhausting, hilarious, very sad and the most kind- sometimes all at once. Culkin plays him like a guy who does not know his place in the world yet, but wants to tell that he does. His inquiry and curiosity, and above all, his honesty give way for many a laughs. He has no filter and Culkin is excellent. David cannot tolerate any more of this, and this gives to a rousing scene at the end, where Eisenberg gets to unfurl his dramatic chops as an actor. These are two performers who know these characters, and have played them before, yet somehow make them new and interesting once again. One wonders why the same line of thought was not invested in the other characters that populate the tour. They all feel deliberately underwritten and devoid of any perspective. At several moments, the parts lack rhythm and precision.
It is Benji's deep seated pain and the need for communication that takes the otherwise disjointed parts of A Real Pain forward. Benji is hurting but he seldom allows himself to show that side. Together, when they visit the graves and then the concentration camps, there is a somber note of grace and silence. Pain and loss, as deep and everlasting as it gets, can never be contextualized. There's no forcing down on those points, simply an acknowledgement works more than enough. A Real Pain understands that, which is why it works.
Santanu Das is covering the Sundance Film Festival 2024 as part of the accredited press.
