'A REAL PAIN' REVIEW: Eisenberg and the Power of Observation [4.5/5]
Poland, This is American Cinematic Neuroses — Now Kiss
[Rating 4.5/5] - dir. Jesse Eisenberg - 2024 - United States/Poland - R - 1h 30m - Dramedy
It’s the 21st century. We fans, audiences, bandwagoners, have too much access to what’s behind the camera. Sure, a great story can still stir us, but do you know what happened on the set of yada yada?! It reels us in.
I’m guilty of it, and therefore I went into this film aware that actor-turned-writer-director Jesse Eisenberg wrote A Real Pain with himself in mind to play the role that would eventually go to co-star Keiran Culkin.
I think ultimately, however, “knowing” (I’m stretching the definition) Eisenberg and Culkin means the film doesn’t have to be quite as streamlined, plot-wise, as an equivalent with no-name actors — and it makes knowing who Eisenberg was meant to play a lot less distracting.
Pointing out they’re playing to type is not meant to be a slight. It would be, if the film coasted on its actors reputations, but it doesn’t, it just uses them to further the story itself. Eisenberg is no stranger to playing the straight man, and fans of Succession or even to a lesser extent Scott Pilgrim will not be suprised by Culkin’s performance.
Eisenberg and Culkin play once-close cousins, brought together again by the death of their grandmother. She always wanted them to visit her in their native Poland, but they never made it when she was alive. Eisenberg’s “David”, the responsible one with his life semi-sorta-seemingly together, puts his life on hold, gets Culkin’s arrested development, lost puppy character “Benji”, and makes it happen. Pretty soon, they’re in the old country, meeting the rest of their holocaust tour group.
By using actors strengths (e.g. the actor we expect to play the straight man is playing the straight man) the audience remembers, Eisenberg and the script get to wander, and explore philosophical, moral themes at length. Many, many other films have tried to do this and have sometimes done it well. But so many of them are theoretical discussions, whispered in library aisles, or over coffee in a teacher’s lounge. A Real Pain, on the other hand, puts its characters in positions (or rather locations) where evolving, sometimes difficult discussions about history and humanity would genuinely arise.
I’m astounded by Eisenberg’s ability to observe our interpersonal behaviour this well, express it this well in writign and direction, and keep it all balanced with actual plot, and movie length arcs.
There is a scene in the first third of A Real Pain where they visit a very serious historical monument. “Benji” suggests he and “David” pose next to the statues like they’re also heroic fighters. “David” isn’t into it, thinking it’s disrespectful, so eventually “Benji” asks to have a photo taken of him enacting his idea alone. Watching this scene, we feel what “David” feels: Embarrassed. Isn’t it kind of… rude? But then a funny thing happens, the rest of the tour group, one by one, joins “Benji” — even the tour guide — and now “David” is the one who seems to have socially misstepped. We might call this a Larry David-esque “social etiquette twist”. Eisenberg litters A Real Pain with them, strengthening rather than draining the film’s greater points about family, history, trauma, trauma porn, self-esteem, depression, and grief.
I’m putting my stake in the ground. Jesse Eisenberg is one of America’s finest young filmmakers.
Due to the many hats he wears, less attention is being paid to his acting, but as a last point let me make clear Eisenberg is at his career best in this film. He mines dramatic depths I didn’t know existed in him. His turns in The Social Network and The Art of Self-Defense are the only ones that come close.
A Real Pain will eventually be placed in the lineage of great double handers, and, I hope, be the start of a great run for Jesse Eisenberg the filmmaker.
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P.S. I’m happy for Will Sharpe. He’s excellent in this supporting role as the tour guide. Quite different from Aubrey Plaza’s character’s guarded, hot nerd husband in The White Lotus Season 2.
P.P.S. Honourable mention to the runtime, coming in at an economic, pleasing 90 minutes. Bravuh.
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‘A Real Pain’ is out now.
Selected Movie Quote: “You light up a room and then you, like, shit on all of it.”
[Rating 4.5/5] - dir. Jesse Eisenberg - 2024 - United States/Poland - R - 1h 30m - Dramedy