Face to face with the past

There's an expected suspension of disbelief that comes with being transported into a movie's fictional world — even when that fictional world is based in our reality. But occasionally, a film is so grounded in human experience that it doesn't feel like watching fiction at all. Instead, it's like seeing a story play out not between actors on a two-dimensional screen but between strangers just across the road. A Real Pain is one of those films.

Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is a comedy road movie about two dissimilar cousins from America who travel to Poland in honour of their late grandmother and their Jewish heritage. The story is not one of action-packed events, but rather one of slowly erupting emotional tensions between two people who can't quite understand who they've grown up to become. Amidst tourist mishaps and newfound connections, the pair must come to empathise with each other's way of processing personal and historical griefs.

When it comes to narratives about family dynamics, it's typical to find parents, children, and siblings at the forefront — a reflection of society's continuing preoccupation with the nuclear family. In A Real Pain, however, we find a charming yet emotional testament to the siblings we can find in our cousins.

Within the film's first three minutes, it's already clear who these characters are: David (Jesse Eisenberg) the anxious, awkward type and Benji (Kieran Culkin) the free spirit. Before they even set off on their trip, we know we're in for an entertaining journey with these two as our guides. Yet, at the same time, this is not a movie that paints its characters with broad brushstrokes. Eisenberg, in his writing, has a laser focus on the finer details of these cousins, particularly those quirks that they see in one another rather than in themselves.

Culkin and Eisenberg's performances have the natural familial chemistry that comes only from growing up alongside someone. So it's incredible to learn that Culkin was cast without an audition or without Eisenberg even seeing any of his previous performances. "He thinks this is a totally normal way to cast," Culkin teases in a conversation for Variety's Actors on Actors. On the Graham Norton Show, the writer-director defends his method of casting his co-star: "He has an essence! Look at his essence!".

Eisenberg and Culkin's conversations during the film's press run bring out their mutual admiration for each other's work. Eisenberg's approach to the Holocaust as a central theme is especially respected as the movie strikes a sensitive balance between an upbeat yet sorrowful tone. In seeking permission to shoot on the site of the Majdanek concentration camp, Eisenberg was warned that he would be turned away in the same way that period drama productions making the same request had been.

But it was when the museum's caretakers understood that the movie's narrative would not be about bringing Nazi characters onto the sacred grounds that A Real Pain was allowed to film at the location. Through its on-screen portrayal of the concentration camp, Eisenberg explains that the intention of his film aligns with Majdanek's mission of letting people know what happened there. When the cousins and their tour group arrive at Majdanek, a noticeable silence washes over the scene. We are brought into the space alongside the group, feeling the weight of its history not through the film's characters but with them.

A Real Pain has earned much-deserved accolades like a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, with Kieran Culkin sweeping for Best Supporting Actor throughout award season. The film is also going into the Academy Awards this weekend with nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. Although A Real Pain might be a contestant that's been overshadowed by the more dominant features of 2024, it is one whose impact will endure beyond awards.

In the first few minutes of A Real Pain, we understand who these characters are and then, within only ninety minutes, that understanding transforms into a love for them — flecked with unravelling grief.

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