Film “A Real Pain” – “A Real Pain” in the cinema: “Doesn’t anyone think that’s crazy?”

The two cousins ​​David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) are almost the same age and grew up together like brothers in New York. But the two early 40-year-olds, whose week-long trip to Poland following in the footsteps of their deceased Jewish grandmother is recounted in the film “A Real Pain,” couldn’t be more different. Benji is a likeable slob and a very emotional guy. He behaves openly towards everyone, never hides his opinion and, for example, at the Jewish cemetery in Lublin, explains quite bluntly to the shocked tour guide James (Will Sharpe) that his fact-based explanations during the week-long trip are totally annoying him. David, on the other hand, is a reserved, almost shy and deeply middle-class, well-behaved family man from Manhattan who works in the advertising industry and is the polar opposite of his unemployed cousin. Benji also takes a big pack of marijuana with him on their trip to Europe and smokes one joint after another. With four other American travelers who are also looking for Jewish history and a confrontation with the horrors of the Shoah, they drive from Warsaw via Lublin to Majdanek, where they visit the concentration camp.

Finally, David and Benji take a detour to a small village to visit their grandmother’s birthplace. The confrontation of American Jews with their European history and the Shoah has been a recurring theme in the US cultural scene for years. Jonathan Safran Foer’s debut novel “Everything is Enlightened,” which was published 22 years ago and was critically acclaimed and was made into a film by Liev Schreiber in 2005, also has a more satirical approach to this very serious and by no means simple topic. “A Real Pain” is primarily about the question of how much the seven-member tour group actually seeks confrontation with the pain of historical experience and really wants to get involved in it. Benji gets really angry as they all sit in the first class compartment of a train and eat snacks as they travel through Poland on the way to a concentration camp. “Doesn’t anyone think that’s crazy?” The group reacts a little too cautiously to this. It’s Benji who, after visiting Majdanek, can’t stop crying on the bus back and feels all the desperation and pain and lets it get to him, while everyone else is silent. But the other tour group members are also exposed to the pain that gives the title in one way or another.

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The 60-year-old wealthy Marcia (Jennifer Gray) despairs of the superficial relationship with her daughter, is completely isolated and wants to use the trip to honor her grandmother, a survivor of the Shoah. Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), who comes from Rwanda, survived the genocide there in 1994, converted to Judaism as a refugee in the USA and wants to get closer to the history of the Shoah on his journey. The retired couple Diane (Liza Sadovy) and Mark (Daniel Oreskes) always hold back and want to know more about their own origins. And David worries about his over-excited cousin Benji, from whom he has become increasingly estranged and who attempted suicide a few months before this educational trip. The journey through Poland, which becomes more and more personal over time, is part of her grandmother’s legacy, who left the two cousins ​​extra money for this venture in order to send them off together. Accordingly, the conflict-ridden and emotional relationship between the two millennials David and Benji is the central storyline of this light-hearted satire, which has a lot to offer and, even if some of it seems laborious, still captivates the viewer in a strangely disturbing way.

This also has to do with Chopin’s music, which is used brilliantly in the film. »A Real Pain« shows a trip to Europe and Poland that goes beyond the expected American clichés, although the group mainly visits sights and also asks the question about the usefulness of such educational excursions without giving flat answers. They provide a bit of great acting through their quirky characters. The film was already highly praised in the US feature pages last January when it was shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Actor Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed the screenplay, was already honored there with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. “A Real Pain” was also nominated for four Golden Globes, and at the beginning of January Kieran Culkin received the trophy for best supporting male role, which he definitely deserves for his brilliant performance. There’s no doubt that “A Real Pain” is also a hot contender for this year’s Oscars, which will be awarded on March 3rd.

»A Real Pain«, USA/Poland 2024. Director and script: Jesse Eisenberg. Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes. 90 min. Now in the cinema.