A Real Pain (2024)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Comparing pain is fascinating because it's always relative to a person's lived experience, and that's what Jesse Eisenberg's 'A Real Pain,' is all about.
  
  His script follows Jewish cousins David (played by Eisenberg himself) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) on an organised tour of their ancestors' home of Poland, and as Benji is struggling with his mental health, the pair are faced with the prospect of reconciling his pain with that of his ancestors, and the challenge of validating it and opening up to each other.
  
  That has all the ingredients of an impactful arc, but their relationship is so stunted that it's a dire struggle for both of them. David is uptight and cold and ultimately seems to view Benji's problems as self inflicted, whilst Benji never opens up and instead channels his struggles into being provocative and pressing people's buttons. If nothing else, that feels extremely earnest, and that's not only down to the writing, but also the brilliant central performances.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The script never really creates the arc that its premise teases, as the pair only really seem to make baby steps towards validating Benji's pain and lifting him out of his struggles the end. That makes it more realistic, but also far less emotionally and thematically satisfying than it could have been.
  
  VERDICT: Jessie Eisenberg's 'A Real Pain,' is a deeply earnest film about reconciling and accepting pain, but its emotionally stunted characters make frustratingly little progress.

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