'A Real Pain' is a Real Joy
A Real Pain is a double entendre. At the center of the film is Benji Kaplan Caplan (Kieran Culkin), the cousin of our protagonist, David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg). To say Culkin is annoying in the film would be an understatement. He's almost insufferable. I get it. He's supposed to be that way. Luckily, we do warm up to him throughout the film, albeit with some corny dialog scenes of affection. The other meaning of the title of the film is the pain our character's ancestors experienced during a Holocaust tour in Poland. A Real Pain is a delightful character study that is a bit too sentimental at times with dialog that's really on the nose. But an overall funny bit about being loved and understood.
The film is a dark but very tasteful comedy. It never takes a swipe at concentration camp material, nor should it unless you're making fun of fascists. Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Inglorious Basterds are two prime examples of how to tackle fascism. The movie tackles the darkest thing you can think of but has more in common with Chaplin than it does with Tarantino. ARP is about two cousins who meet and hardly ever see each other. David is married with children. He's neurotic like Woody Allen. David doesn't like affection and is often very shy. David can't wait to get back home to his kids as he views his phone featuring a video of his baby boy while laying in his ben in Poland feeling homesick.
In contrast, his cousin David is uncomfortably social. It's like The Odd Couple, with one guy being totally different from the other. The opposites attract bromance has been a common thread in films for generations. The entire flick takes place during a trip to Poland, where the guys are grouped with other tourists during a trip to the concentration camps. All have come to get in touch with their Jewish roots and want to pay respect to those who either died or survived the Holocaust. However, the real reason Benji is there is to collect his deceased grandmother's inheritance. The Holocaust tour is just more of a front for Benji. Or so we think.
When I first met Benji, I wanted to yell, "Shut the F up!" at the screen. But as good films do, they create a character out of Benji that makes us sympathize with him. Benji is the prototypical screw-up. He doesn't hold any real job that we know of and smokes weed all day in his mother's basement. Yet we end up liking him because Benji is a sweet, caring person who means a lot to people. During one of the film's pivotal monologues, David tells Benji how heartbroken everyone would be if he were gone.
So many people love Benji because he's a joyful pain in the ass. He's like that girl in the video who dances after getting her food. They're both happy about life. Meanwhile, folks like David is the girl at the table across from her, disapproving of the stranger's open happiness with a look of disgust on her face. The movie is a cute, overplayed concept that still works to this day because we all have that cousin or friend who loves to be the center of attention. It's rare to see Jesse Eisenberg in a role where I don't view him as annoying. Seeing as this movie is written, directed by, and starring him, it should come as no surprise that he wouldn't make himself dislikeable.
A Real Pain is a real joy of a comedy that may be a little too sweet. When the film gets all mushy on us, I can't help but feel a little bit like David. By the millionth time Kieran Culkin tells Jesse Eisenberg he loves him, I would have loved to have left to take a leak. If not for the backdrop of the Holocaust tour, I probably would throw this movie in the forgettable film pile. But it's almost good enough with its material that I actually found myself laughing a couple of times.
The bit where Culkin is crying his eyes out on the bus is twisted enough to make me chuckle. Also, the scene where Benji forces the tour guide to be more sensitive to the deceased of the Holocaust is pretty good. Benji even raises some good points in the film. One is the hypocrisy of a bunch of Jews sitting first class on a train to the concentration camps.
The film shifts to an appropriately serious tone during a walk around the camps and ends with a haunting shot of all the shoes from the deceased. By delicately balancing tone with an open-for-interpretation ending, Jesse Eisenberg directs an impressive comedy. Hopefully, he'll have more in the future.
