The Walt Disney Company came to the 2024 Sundance Film Festival with two new films (Searchlight Pictures’ Suncoast and Disney’s Out of My Mind) but left with a third. Their lone acquisition is already an award-winner (The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic), A Real Pain. Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman is in Trouble), who also stars, A Real Pain will get an eventual wide release through Searchlight Pictures. Having experienced the film at the festival, I can see why Searchlight wanted it.
(Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Searchlight Pictures)
Two adult cousins – David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin, Succession) Kaplan – reunite for a pilgrimage to Poland, where their dearly departed Grandma Dory was born. Joining a group tour of Jewish historical sites, David and Benji try to reconnect with their grandmother and each other, having once been so close they were like brothers. But as the title suggests, that’s easier said than done, with each going through their own personal struggles in the shadow of their ancestor’s harrowing story of survival.
The joy of A Real Pain comes from watching this mismatched pairing. Jesse Eisenberg created a role for himself that he feels at home in, a character who is a little too tightly wound for Kieran Culkin’s more free-spirited Benji. Although, as we learn more about each of them, we find they each have their own unique challenges to overcome. But for the majority of the film, they seem like polar opposites, trying to make things work to honor their grandmother. And Culkin, hot off his Emmy win, crafts an incredible performance of a character who may have undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He takes viewers through Benji’s roller coaster of emotions, a mixture of impossible highs and cavernous lows.
Filmed in Poland, the film takes on a travelogue quality as the group tour takes the characters to some historic sites, including Majdanek Concentration Camp. As David repeats to the other tour guests, their grandma lived through “A thousand miracles” prior to their birth, which lends to an overall theme of both men feeling inadequate in her wake, as well as a sense of guilt for the comforts they currently enjoy. That’s echoed in the cinematography, which is often bright and joyful despite the weight of the history they’re experiencing. Beneath it all is a theme of honoring the past while not letting it overshadow the present.
The cast is rounded out by some familiar faces on the tour, starting with its leader, James, played by Will Sharpe (White Lotus), who gets to use his natural British accent here. Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) is delightful as Marcia, a recently single woman who is somewhat the voice of reason when the group grows tired of Benji’s antics. Liza Sadovy (A Small Light) and Daniel Oreskes (Only Murders in the Building) play Diane and Mark, a retired Jewish couple who stand in for your typical group tour guest. And Kurt Egyiawan (Andor) adds a unique perspective to the persecution of Jews as someone who comes from another wartorn culture.
At the core of A Real Pain is a story about two men dealing with ambiguous loss, a term psychologists use to discribe the feeling of siblings who grow apart in their adult life. Filled with beautiful moments and told with warmth and heart, the film stays with you and is guaranteed to resonate with adults feeling the same sense of disconnect from the peers they miss from their formative years. It’s a must-see.
I give A Real Pain 5 out of 5 stars.
Stay tuned for more details about A Real Pain’s upcoming release from Searchlight Pictures.