Jewish cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg who also directed and wrote the
script) and Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) meet up in an airport in the US
for the first time in years after the death of their grandmother. The pair
intend to head to Poland to see the house where their grandmother used to
stay and on the way there they’ve arranged to join an organised tour of
sites that are linked to the holocaust.
On arrival in Poland the pair join up with four other Jewish people and
British tour guide James (Will Sharpe) and that’s about that as not much
really happens in A Real Pain. The pair, who couldn’t be more different,
David is quiet and courteous whereas Benji is outspoken and is the life and
soul of the party, bond through smoking pot on their hotel roof and dodging
a ticket collector on a train and that’s about it. Even at just 90 minutes
long A Real Pain feels stretched.
The big question in A Real Pain is what is the pain of the title? Is it, at
times, the obnoxious Benji or is it both David and Benji’s pain of
experiencing first-hand the horrors of the holocaust. You could argue that
it’s both but it’s a hard slog trying to find out.
2/5
A Real Pain
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes
