Jesse Eisenberg is a prolific actor who’s done some great work in The Social Network, Now You See Me, Zombieland, and now his latest A Real Pain which he also wrote/directed. He has found an interest in directing lately with When You Finish Saving the World under his best as well. This film seems a bit personal and has an autobiographical nature to it. It’s roughly based on family experiences he has had. Whatever the case may be, Eisenberg is coming into his own as a writer/director.

Two cousins David Kaplin (Jesse Eisenberg ) and Benji Kaplin (Kieran Culkin) decide to honor their late grandmother by going on a group tour of Poland in honor of her heritage as a Polish/Jewish immigrant who survived. As the tour progresses “The Odd Couple” if you will starts to develop some animosities toward each other. They’ve had different lives from one another and some of the frustrations have come to the surface as they’ve embarked on the tour across their grandmother’s country.

I’ve seen my share of movies dealing with some kind of trek or excursion across a country in my day. The Way, Wild, and A Walk in the Woods come to mind when thinking of these kinds of films. These types of films have something in common. They all have characters who are trying to get over something. In the case of A Real Pain, it’s a different upbringing and resentment of love of one and not the other. These kinds of trips can clear up differences such as these between family members, in this case, or friends in other cases. 

Ciaran Culkin had a lot to live up to in his life. Both of his older brothers were successful actors and made some pretty good films in their day. Home Alone, Uncle Buck, and Signs among them. His meteoric rise in the HBO drama series Succession thrust him into superstars. Having just won an Emmy for his role as Rman Roy gave him the option of doing anything he wanted to do in his career. He chose this project for a reason. I can see why. There is a relatability factor with this film I’m sure for him. He could sink his teeth into something he thought may have been related to his own experiences to some degree. It was a good decision to choose this role. I wonder how much of his performance was ad-libbed.

Besides the two stars of the film, there is also a good supporting cast in it. The tour guide is played by Will Sharpe. He learns something about himself in the course of doing the tour. Jennifer Gray plays a recently divorced woman who has a connection with Culkin’s character.  He helps her take her mind off of her last relationship that didn’t end so well. Kurt Egyiawan plays a Rwandan/Canadian turned Jew. He’s trying to find a connection between the two different genocides he’s adjacent to. Daniel Oreskes and Lisa Sadovy play a married couple trying to explore their family heritage before it’s gone.

Part of the reason I was very interested to see this movie was because of the buzz it received out of the Sundance Film Festival last January. Searchlight Pictures picked it up and now it’s coming out in November.  People were raving about Culkin’s performance.  They said he was hilarious. I didn’t find him funny at all. I liked his shtick in Succession,  but it has worn itself thin for me now. He just came off as an annoying brat who didn’t get the life his cousin had and he’s jealous of that. I’ve seen these types of characters a lot in cinema. More often than not I don’t like them either. Hopefully, Culkin will find other roles where he doesn’t need to ad-lib or do his shtick. I’d be interested to see what he can do when he’s not doing those two things.

A Real Pain was as the title suggests. Jesse Eisenberg as a writer/director is coming into his own, but this semi-autobiographical story wasn’t always for me. The tour of Poland was good. The supporting characters I liked a lot. Eisenberg himself got away from his shtick and made a character I could get behind. On the other hand, Culkin was just an annoying brat who couldn’t get what he wanted and so he threw a tantrum. I didn’t sign up for that kind of film. I wanted a family bonding story. The ending was a bit anticlimactic for me.

2 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen