By Seb Jenkins - January 8, 2025
Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs, produces a stars in a sharp yet emotional buddy comedy-drama alongside Kieran Culkin as two American cousins travel to Poland to honour their late grandmother.
Every so often, an actor comes along who was simply born to play a role. Kieran Culkin as Benji is just about as seamless as an actor can hope to slip into the uncomfortable shoes of a complex character – and Jesse Eisenberg deserves the credit for picking him out from the crowd, quite literally. Culkin revealed in the press tour for A Real Pain that Eisenberg not only cast him without an audition, but without having seen him in anything…ever. The writer-director apparently offered Culkin the role of Benji on ‘essence’ alone from two fleeting meetings somewhere in Planet Hollywood. Paired with the sharpest of witty scripts and the most heart-wrenching of backdrops, Eisenberg may have curated one of the films of 2025 – and we’re only in January!
A Real Pain is a buddy comedy-drama that brings unlikely cousins David and Benji (Eisenberg and Culkin) together for a trip to Poland to honour their late grandmother. Having been born and raised in America, the brother-like cousins are keen to embark on a Nazi German Holocaust tour in order to gain a greater appreciation of Dory’s unimaginable struggles – all culminating with a visit to her former home. What plays out on screen is a wicked sense of comedic timing and a beautiful whirlpool of contrasting characters, while still allowing the key themes of loss, depression, and tragedy to take centre stage as the real stars. While this is far from Eisenberg’s first writing credit, it feels wholeheartedly and deservingly ‘award-winning’.
The film sets the tone brilliantly within three minutes of the lights dimming down as we open within the chaos of a New York airport. Benji – free-spirited and unpredictable – a man capable of striking up a rapport with a TSA agent within a 30-second bag scan – has arrived five hours early. He likes to hang out at the airport because, and I quote, ‘you meet the craziest people here’. David – neurotic and anxious – has already left his cousin five unanswered voicemails by the time he arrives for their departure. Together, Culkin and Eisenberg inhabit these doting but ultimately polarising characters with such chaotic poise.
Benji is all-consuming, incessant, and wildly inconsistent. He’s both captivating and cruel in equal measure, bewitching with effortless charm yet troubled beneath the surface. As David so eloquently puts it: “You can light up a room, then shit on everything in it.” David, himself married with an adorable child and an apartment in New York City, simply cannot wrap his head around his cousin’s charisma. How can one so magnetising show such disregard for his own gift? On the surface, A Real Pain may seem like a comedy, but it’s more about the raw and real relationship between two people struggling to understand how the other half carries their grief. Repressed vs volcanic – a visit to a Polish concentration camp brings one truth crashing down on David and Benji – there is more than one way to mourn.
Jesse Eisenberg shows nothing short of genius in his work on A Real Pain. The script is such an honest look at how grief can divide as much as it can unite, but Eisenberg still manages to earn his laughs like a light at the end of a gloomy tunnel. The directorial choice to dedicate so much time to shining a light on holocaust sites around Poland was also immaculate. Not only did tour guide James (Will Sharpe) make it feel like an emotional, immersive tour for the audience as much as the characters, but it added so much depth to the overarching theme of grief.
Not only that, but Eisenberg’s embodiment of David felt like a brave reflection of his own real-life battles. In a recent interview, he admitted: “I have terrible anxiety, OCD, but I medicate it away and am able to live a functioning life. I used to cry about everything the way David used to cry about everything. I now don’t and I sometimes wonder, ‘Did I lose something? Am I detached in a way that’s more sustainable but less engaged with the world?'” Not only was his portrayal beautiful to watch, but I’m sure it will also serve as inspiring representation for a great number of people out there.
Kieran Culkin is mesmerising in this film. Just like Benji is able to bewitch his acquaintances at the drop of a hat, you simply cannot look away from Culkin’s performance. If Roman Roy was the starter, then Benji is the main course. Everything about his portrayal feels dangerous and unpredictable, like the entire storyline could flip at a moment’s notice without even writer-director-producer-star Eisenberg being able to stop it. Yet between those moments of chaos, there is so much vulnerability to Benji. At his heart, he wants to be a better man – a feeling shared by everyone he meets – and Culkin walks that tightrope like a master of his craft.
A Real Pain - Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, take a bow.
A Real Pain releases in UK cinemas January 8
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