American Jewish cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) travel to Poland to honour their late grandmother, visiting the town in which she grew up. They join a tour group that takes them through various landmarks connected to the Jewish Holocaust. While exploring and immersing themselves in the painful history of World War II, they too embark on a journey of self-discovery and self-reflection.

Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is a travelogue film that details a trip through Poland, as much as it is a meditation on pain and, more so, how different people deal with pain. David is reserved and reticent, while Benji is outgoing and an open book. The two are polar opposites who each cope with their pain in different ways. One internalises and chooses to ignore, while the other expresses their emotions almost unfiltered. Throughout the film, the two characters (and personalities) collide, not just with each other, but with the people around them. Through the exchanges, the film expresses and highlights the ways we, the viewers, might also be experiencing and handling emotional hardships in our daily lives. Using the tragic history of the Jewish Holocaust as a backdrop, the film also explores and connects the individual modern-day hardships with the past. The result is a rich, bittersweet texture that lasts in my mind long after finishing the film.

The central performances by Eisenberg and Culkin are riveting. While Kieran Culkin delivers a barnstorming performance as the somewhat eccentric Benji, it’s Eisenberg’s quiet but storm-brewing-under-the-clouds performance as David that truly captivates me. The faintest and most subtle eye movements, posture, and body language carry the weight of the character, allowing him to speak volumes with minimal lines of dialogue.

I enjoy the cinematography by Polish cinematographer Michał Dymek. His love for his home country is palpable through the vibrant colours and beautiful framing of landscapes and landmarks. To add to the atmosphere, the soundtrack is laden with Chopin, the Polish pianist and my favourite composer of all time. My only quibble with the soundtrack, however, is that several pieces are reused throughout the film instead of introducing new ones. The soundtrack also feels safe by sticking to the flowier and gentler pieces of Chopin’s work instead of opting for braver and more bombastic choices to highlight scenes of emotional outbursts.

In short, A Real Pain is a fine work by Eisenberg that manages to be both a riveting travelogue and a thoughtful meditation on pain. I highly recommend the film.

Author: Chia Jing Heng (andreusjh99)