Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Digital and coming to Bluray in February from writer/director Jesse Eisenberg and Searchlight Pictures is a story of family, history and everything in between when dealing with A REAL PAIN.

David (Jesse Eisenberg) decides to take cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin) on a family journey back to their grandmother’s homeland of Poland and their Jewish roots. Flying into Poland, they are met by the tour guide James (Will Sharpe) and travel companions Marcia (Jennifer Grey), Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), Diane (Lisa Sadovy) and Mark (Daniel Oreskes). They aren’t even gone a day but David is missing his wife Priya (Ellora Torchia) and son.

It doesn’t take long before he also becomes nervous about Benji’s outbursts. Being the reserved, working-class husband and father, his cousin is the total opposite testing the boundaries of convention and never in one place very long. David believes that taking this trip will help them both deal with the grief of their grandmother. As the trip begins, it is clear that Benji manages to connect with the group with his charm and humor and David struggles to accept his cousins’ behavior. During one stop of the tour, the group begins to see Benji’s struggles as he confronts James’ authenticity of being the tour guide.

Finally, at dinner, David comes clear with his own emotions regarding his cousin. It all comes to a head when they visit Majdanek concentration camp. Emotions come out of everyone as they come face to face with what is still at a camp that the Germans didn’t have time to completely destroy. Each step they take, David and Benji begin to see what their grandmother survived in her younger years. Visiting her home is the final destination before the cousins go home.

Arriving home, the two have final moments to remember that they are flawed human beings but that doesn’t make them any less cousins who love one another.

Eisenberg as David seems to be afraid of everything from making sure he is solid in his job for family security to what everyone else thinks of how he handles life. When Benji comes along with his brazen attitude and charm, it makes David physically uncomfortable. The only way he can deal with it is to go along to get along. Eisenberg has the uncanny ability to play the role of the guy feeling left out, sort of the square peg in a round hole syndrome. But Eisenberg also gives David the ability to slowly let his emotions come out in a way that is scary yet loving at the same time.

Culkin as Benji gets an opportunity to let just a little bit of Roman Roy (HBO’s SUCCESSION series) out to play with wit but it is this actor’s ability to rattle off lines with razor sharp precision that is attention grabbing. It is apparent that Benji has unresolved family issues as well as personal and perhaps mental issues. As much as David is tightly wound, Benji is free flowing and doesn’t have a filter or sensor that guides him. If he thinks it, he speaks it and Culkin delivers it expertly.

Sharpe as James is the statics and facts kind of tour guide. He knows everything about where he is taking the group but when Benji puts in his two cents, however harshly, it causes him to pause. Egyiawan as Eloge is an unexpected surprise to the group, why he is there is heartbreaking but also joyful. What a wonderful addition to the tour group. Oreskes as Mark is on this tour because of wife Diane played by the very compassionate Sadovy. Grey as Marcia is trying to find herself by remember where her family came from. It is wonderful to see Grey take on this role and immerse herself in the experience of two totally different cousins.

The Bonus Features include Beautiful Fate: Making A REAL PAIN – Take A TOUr through the heart and history of Poland while going behind the scenes of A REAL PAIN. Explore the themes of family and connection with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin. Experience all the humor and humanity that brought this story to life.

A REAL PAIN has been nominated for 4 Golden Globe Awards® including Best Picture, Best Actor Jesse Eisenberg, Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin and Best Screenplay. The film won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

The film begins with the feeling a lot of us have about that one person in the family who seems like an understandable and unexpected butterfly. Loving them from afar seems to be the safest thing to do yet David decides to try and help his cousin Benji deal with the death of their grandmother by a trip. Almost immediately David realizes that his cousin is going to not only test his patience but his own beliefs in life and family.

Eisenberg and Culkin are amazing together as they bounce off one another, although it seems Culkin is doing the most bouncing. As the film progresses, it is an opportunity to watch these two cousins air out their issues, try to understand one another and grieve the one person they both saw as the miracle in their family. There are moments between these two actors that are so sublime that I fell in completely.

This is a film of love, acceptance, raw emotions, the every day life of family, history, humor, and what it takes to be part of it all. A REAL PAIN isn’t just one person, it is a little bit of us all.

In the end – there’s always something about family!

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