A Real Pain: Jesse Eisenberg’s Second Directing Effort, Starring Himself and Kieran Culkin–2024 Best Films

The film stars Eisenberg and Culkin (fresh of his win at the Emmys for the final season of Succession) as cousins who travel to their grandmother’s native Poland to partake in a Holocaust tour.

Eisenberg and Culkin play American cousins, David Kaplan and Benji Kaplan respectively, who were once close and now, after the death of their grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor, embark on a heritage tour of Poland.

On their final night in Poland, the cousins smoke marijuana together, where Benji confronts David about his changed personality and why he never visits him. David says that he is busy with his wife and child, but he eventually breaks down and explains that following Benji’s suicide attempt, he is unable to bear the thought of Benji killing themselves.

In the end, the pair return to New York, where Benji declines David’s offers to visit his home, which prompts David to slap Benji.  But they immediately reconcile, professing that they care deeply about each other. David returns to his wife and child, while Benji sits alone at the airport, observing other groups of travelers.

Under the guise of a road movie with a light touch and even jokes, A Real Pain deals with such profound questions as how we confront pain, how we deal with suffering? Is it an entirely personal issue?

Society often prescribes a hopeful approach to pain and loss, summed up in the normative expressions of “get on with life” and “life must go one.”  Both David and Benjo are forced to grapple with these concerns, and at times they not only baffle themselves and each other, but also choose opposite paths.