Directed By Jesse Eisenberg

Starring – Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Jennifer Grey

The Plot – Follows mismatched cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) as they reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

Rated R for adult language throughout and some drug use.

A REAL PAIN | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

POSITIVES

Having not seen Eisenberg’s debut directorial effort, ‘When You Finish Saving the World’, this marks my first occasion to his brand of naturalistic storytelling, and already I can see that there’s much about his unique approach that lends itself to the enjoyment of this being one of my favorite dramaedies of the year. It centers around the lived-in believable dynamic of David and Benji, which is such a constant delight to interpret, even during tense scenes of confrontation between the two that has seemingly been brewing for quite sometime. What I appreciate most is the nuance to how Eisenberg writes this duo, with each of them serving as the proverbial ying to the other’s yang, with Benji being the life of the party that commands any room that he chooses to grace with his presence, while David serving as the uninterrupted conscience of the group, seemingly forced to repeatedly apologize for Benji’s crudely unapologetic behavior that casually emphasizes his influence over any character experiencing him for the first time. This is only surpassed by the conversation between these cousins, offering bits of knowledgeable insight into the determined roles that each of them slip back into so seamlessly, whenever they come into contact with one another, but beyond that a hearty layer of compassionate underlining that does do a detailed job of conveying their love for one another, with romantic instances of affection that were endearing pay-offs to the sometimes tensely conflicts that ensued between them, as a result of their geographic distancing that has only since subdued their issues without downright acknowledging them. Eisenberg also cements each of them with a complexity of emotions that ultimately keeps them from falling into conventionalized types that so many of these kinds of movies make up, where their occasionally sporadic outbursts (Particularly in Benji) wields an air of unpredictability and diversion to where I thought many of these scenes would ultimately end up, helping to effortlessly articulate the beats of humanity that breed such a universal language with the audience, without weighing heavily on the movie’s dialogue to tell us so. It’s also an opportunity for Eisenberg to show how he maintains earned and effective tonal variance, between the kind of comedy and drama that the movie articulates in so many vulnerable instances to David’s overly anxious enveloping. For the first half of the movie, it’s undoubtedly a hijinks comedy, with the editing weighing so heavily on the impacts of the deliveries in ways that carry over laughter to the following scene, before they even materialize from where they’re dropped, however once Jewish history starts taking over the focus of the trip, there is some gripping imagery and confrontations within the two characters that does lead to some highly compelling drama that elevates the material, all without sacrificing the distinguishing traits of its personality that Eisenberg works brilliantly to pull his audience in. The piano-driven score involving classical compositions certainly go a long way towards rendering a somberly bitter pill of truth to swallow to Jewish history, but the imagery from Eisenberg and cinematographer Michael Dymek is just as crucial, documenting all of the beauty and tragedy of Poland, which linger just long enough to pronounce sentiments in the minds of the audience, before transitioning on to the next. Capturing the devastating ghosts of such a darkly unforgiving place is one thing, but Eisenberg’s confidence to pull back in these moments and instead focus on the glaring registries of his ensemble drives the nail even deeper, surpassed only by a full circle intention with the movie’s introduction and ending that cleverly emanate from the same location, but with entirely different feelings attained as a result of the depths of knowledge attained from the journey. Then there’s the dazzling performances from Culkin and Eisenberg, who each leave no doubt to the mesmerizing capabilities that they bring to any movie fortunate to have them. Culkin hands in what is easily my favorite performance from him to date, brandishing the same kind of sizzling charisma to continuously feast on a film’s scenery, but with an emotional frailty involving spontaneous shifts that may just be the most realistic depiction of bipolar syndrome that I’ve ever seen put to film. Culkin’s wit is the proverbial cheese in the mouse trap that his character uses to render his opposition defenseless, and like those surrounding tourists, we fall prey to the same unfiltered honesty that he turns on a dime to humble anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in his crosshairs, and while this makes him sound like a terrible person, it instead articulates the loneliness and desperation in the character, which Culkin articulates with incomparable influence that elevates this film a whole grade on his appeal alone. But even with Culkin’s radiance over the proceedings, Eisenberg still finds moments for himself to shine, not only with the anxious neurotics that Jesse has spawned a career from, but also these long-winded diatribes that remind us how captivating of a dramatic actor that he truly can be. David’s fears serve as the perfect counterpart to the transparency of Benji that he envies subconsciously, and in being the butt to many of Benji’s humiliatingly revealing memories, affords Eisenberg the opportunity to unload the character’s demons with simmering intensity that reaches boiling level during one key dinner scene, which is among my favorite scenes of the entire cinematic year.

NEGATIVES

This isn’t a perfect movie, but nothing in the problems leads to anything too terribly compromising to the movie’s integrity, instead serving as noticeable hiccups to the movie’s smooth 85-minute allowance that made this such an effortlessly delightful engagement. My first issue pertains to the direction of the narrative, which chooses to follow David instead of Benji, and while that’s obviously to keep us distant from the perplexing actions of the latter, it doesn’t always lead to the most exciting exploits of time, particularly during one instance where the characters separate, and it feels like the better arc is taking place somewhere that we the audience don’t have access to. In my opinion, this film would’ve benefited tremendously from split time that constantly gave us the best of both worlds, especially considering during that second act my interest waned more than it did at any point in the film, as I waited for Benji to move back into frame, and while David is just as fascinating of a character study, he only evolves whenever he’s around Benji, so this distancing doesn’t work out for either them or us. My other issue with the film pertained to some inconsistent ADR within the film’s post-production that glaringly obstructed my focus to the dialogue interaction that I found so compelling. This obviously won’t be an issue for audiences, as rarely anybody pays attention to this kind of thing, however the lack of lining up from the lip movements of the actors to the lines they were pronouncing felt sloppily produced, primarily during initial interactions, which evidently conveyed longer scenes that were hemmed to accommodate a smoother flow in the dynamic between the two protagonists, by relying on the over-usage of choppy sound editing that definitely wasn’t executed with any shred of believability.

OVERALL
‘A Real Pain’ is next level directing from Jesse Eisenberg, who in constructing tonal elasticity between simplistic schemes of self-humility with gut-punching poignancy, concocts a smartly observational effort that conveys insight into the unresolved fragility of family feuds that grow deeper with time. Despite inconsistent focus in the beats of the narrative, the film is elevated tremendously by tour-de-force work from both Culkin and Eisenberg, who appraise such a soulfully stirring balance between their respective characters, all with equally entrancing artistic merits that sneak up on you just as meticulously as the beats of the storytelling.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+