“Is anyone else, like, feeling this right now?” Benji Kaplan said in A Real Pain.
Seriously. Is anyone else, like, feeling this right now? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Kaplan cousins since watching this masterpiece.
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is a much-needed offbeat exploration of family and struggling identity. The film follows Kaplan cousins David, played by Eisenberg, and Benji, played by Kieran Culkin, as they travel through Poland, trying to reconnect with their Jewish roots and each other after their grandmother’s passing. However, their journey is not only a family trip but a reckoning with history, loss and the weight of their shared heritage.
David and Benji’s clashing personalities are portrayed with careful detail to fully embody traits many viewers like myself will recognize in themselves and people close to them.
David is an uptight, socially awkward family man whose reluctance to make anything about himself leads to him suffering silently throughout the film.
Benji is an impulsive, self-destructive man whose close relationship with his late grandmother takes him and his fellow tourers on an emotional rollercoaster as he questions societal norms and handles his overwhelming grief.
As I watched this film, I began to think about who I related to more. Was it David’s reluctance to participate in silly activities that ran the risk of upsetting others or making a fool of himself, or Benji’s harsh criticism of the world but deep empathy for others I could see myself in more?
However, one line changed everything.
“I love him, and I hate him, and I want to be him,” David said.
Benji and David’s conflicting personalities cause both emotional turmoil and misunderstanding of the other. Although Benji’s troubling and unfiltered behavior causes David extreme anxiety and exhaustion, he wants so badly to possess Benji’s bravery and charisma.
“Aw, man, you used to, like, feel everything,” Benji said.
Eisenberg masterfully writes Benji’s grief and how it takes over every aspect of his life as his pain makes him confront unresolved feelings of his missed childhood with David and his own feelings of loneliness.
Kieran Culkin’s performance is electric and truly makes the film as he embodies the unpredictable yet heartbreakingly vulnerable Benji. His acting style thrives in the awkward, second-hand embarrassment-inducing moments, making it impossible to look away even if you really want to.
The cinematography only enhances the film’s vulnerability and most importantly, it’s realism. Cinematographer Michal Dymek captures a muted, naturalistic color palette of Poland that immerses viewers in their beautiful journey and supports the film’s emotional rawness.
“The main inspiration and reference was the script and location we selected during location scouting. In conversations during prep, Jesse mentioned a lot about the poetics of storytelling with long shots from Woody Allen’s films,” Dymek said in an interview with Filmmaker.
Scenes of vast, empty landscapes reflected Benji and David’s feeling of loss while tighter, intense moments were used to reflect the tension of the cousins’ conflict.
A Real Pain is not only about grief; the film covers the complexity of relationships with ourselves and the ones that shape us the most.
Eisenberg leaves us with a very real and emotionally upsetting ending that accomplishes everything but wrapping things up neatly. Without spoiling, though I wouldn’t consider this film to be capable of spoiling as it’s about experiencing David and Benji’s journey with them and cannot be boiled down to a climax or ending, by the time the credits roll viewers are left with an ache that feels all too real. Maybe better described as a real pain.
“Do you see what happens when you walk into a room? I would give anything to know what that feels like, man. To know what it feels like to have charm. To light up a room when I walk in. But you light up a room and then you, like, [judge] everything inside of it,” David said.
