21/24
David Kaplan: Yeah
Story
The misfit cousins reunite for a trip to Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the old tensions of the odd couple resurface against the backdrop of their family history. When Benji and David visit their grandmother’s house in Poland, the setting is the place where Jesse Eisenberg’s real-life ancestors settled in the diaspora. Benji Kaplan: Stay nimble, stay light, stay nimble. Benji Kaplan: The conductor will come to get the tickets, we tell him we’re going to the bathroom. David Kaplan: Bathroom. Benji Kaplan: Gets in the back of the train, starts walking forward, looking David Kaplan: Excuse me, we’re lost.
Benji Kaplan: Yeah?
By the time he gets to the front, the train will be in the station and we’ll be home free. David Kaplan: That’s so stupid. The tickets are probably like twelve dollars. Benji Kaplan: That’s the principle. We shouldn’t be paying for train tickets in Poland. This is our country. David Kaplan: No, it’s not, it was our country.
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They kicked us out because they thought we were cheap. 46,44 (2024). 12 Studies, Op. 25, No. 3 in F major Written by Frédéric Chopin Performed by Tzvi Erez. Jesse Eisenberg’s second effort as a writer-director is something of an anomaly. The DNA of A REAL PAIN is something of Richard Linklater’s BEFORE trilogy, and there’s also a recognizable legacy from Michael Winterbottom’s TRIP series.
it just doesn’t quite work
The perambulating pace of movement, the sparse cinematography that invites you to peer beneath the surface of the sights, the dialogue that meanders through an unpretentious, unstructured unpacking of the meaning of life, the complete absence of “bad guys”; the almost complete absence of any overt conflict, the vaguest hint of any purpose that moves the plot beyond simply completing a journey… A Real Pain shares all of these realistic traits with those earlier, more energetic, life-affirming films. Yet somehow… I’m not sure what was to blame for the fact that I never really got into this film. I think a lot of it has to do with all the supporting characters (that is, everyone except the cousins played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin). Willa Sharpe, the gentiles, the tour guide, the Rwandan convert, the elderly couple, the sexy divorcee… the characters are very simple, very traditional, very boring.
Eisenberg knows how to maneuver the camera, I think; he knows how to introduce the right cinematic elements
The actors who play them are good, but they don’t have much to do and as a result they seem unnatural and lifeless, more like landscapes than people. But maybe he doesn’t know how to direct actors, or maybe he just doesn’t know how to write characters. There’s never any indication that these people exist outside of the moments we see them, which could probably be avoided with more spontaneous acting improvisation. Eisenberg and especially Culkin are better at this, but there’s still something rather strained and “written” about a lot of what they say and do. Eisenberg’s “workaholic salesman with OCD” is largely one-dimensional, and the few times his character expands beyond that facade feels more like forced acting than any kind of genuine perception of anything deeper. Culkin is wonderful – perhaps a glimpse into his successor character if Roman Roy really cares about people – but I think that’s just a credit to Culkin’s talent; he somehow manages to transcend what he’s been given to work with. This is a decent independent film with some good laughs, some interesting ideas, an unforgettable journey through Poland, and a solid performance from Culkin.
