Content Advisory: Self-injurious behavior, Suicide, The Holocaust
Two cousins go on a tour of Holocaust sites in Poland in A Real Pain. David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg) has taken some time off his busy work and family life to join his cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin) on a tour of Poland in memory of their recently deceased grandmother. The two join a tour group led by James (Will Sharpe), who visits many sites of the Holocaust, including a concentration camp, with the very outspoken Benji taking offence at James’ placid tour guide demeanour. The trip concludes with David and Benji taking a detour to visit the hometown of their Holocaust survivor grandmother.
A Real Pain Synopsis
A Real Pain is a dramedy written, directed by, and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network). Eisenberg stars as David Kaplan, an introverted online ad salesman, who joins his more extroverted cousin Benji, played by Kieran Culkin (Succession, Scott Pilgrim vs the World), on a tour of Polish Holocaust sites. The tour is led by the naive British tour guide James, played by Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), and includes fellow Jewish tourists such as Marsha (Jennifer Grey), who develops a report with Benji, the midwestern couple Mark (Daniel Oreskes) and Diane (Liza Sadovy), and Rwandan genocide survivor Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan).
The tour brings the group to the various sites of the Holocaust, including the Warsaw Ghetto and the Majdanek concentration camp, located just outside the city of Lublin. Throughout the tour, Benji’s demeanour changes and he takes offence at amenities such as a first-class train ride and James’ just spouting off facts. David and Benji separate from the tour group on the final day of their trip to visit the small village of Kranystaw, where their grandmother grew up.
My Thoughts on A Real Pain
A Real Pain is a film that balances humour with a very serious subject matter involving the Holocaust. The film is inspired by a real trip to Poland taken by writer/director Jesse Eisenberg, whose own family originated from the village of Kranystaw, visited by the film’s protagonists David and Benji. While the tour is about revisiting the pain of the Holocaust, it is soon revealed that the cousins are coping with pain in their personal lives as well.
Structured as a buddy comedy, the film sees Jesse Eisenberg play David as the straight man, while Kieran Culkin plays Benji as an extreme extrovert, who quickly befriends most of the other members of the tour group. While Benji initially seems to be somewhat disrespectful during the tour, posing with memorial statues, it soon becomes apparent that he takes this tour very seriously, often resulting in conflicts with the tour guide James. Soon more backstory is revealed about Benji’s home life and how he and David are no longer as they were when they were younger.
Probably the most affecting scene of A Real Pain is when the tour group visits the Majdanek concentration camp. The production was allowed to shoot inside the real camp, which is now a historical site. Out of respect for the victims, the film adopts a much more sombre tone during this sequence, which includes removing the score and having limited dialogue. Even though I am not Jewish myself, I was quite affected by this brief sequence.
A Real Pain is arguably a more personal film for Jesse Eisenberg than his debut directorial feature, 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World. Altogether, the film features solid lead performances by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin and does an OK job at balancing cringe humour with the more serious reflection on the Holocaust. Whether you are Jewish or not, A Real Pain is a film worth checking out.