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I love a double entendre in a movie title, and this one is "chef's kiss" perfect. A Real Pain follows Jewish cousins who join a Holocaust remembrance tour in Poland. Each member of the tour has a different reason for being there - some Jewier, some less so, one a real life survivor of another attempted genocide. These cousins are there to honor their grandmother who was a survivor - one nervous and generally uncomfortable, the other a natural charmer, high strung, and more than a bit annoying (Keiran Culkin giving an incredible performance with so much depth). They are on a journey to learn, and also to reconnect at a time when they have lost some of their former closeness. As the story unfolds, we learn a bit more about the trauma and the suffering they each carry.
The beauty of the title is that the one cousin (Culkin) is obviously a real pain... in the ass. But they are also both carrying a genuine pain from their pasts, from their declining relationship, from their concern for each other's well being. And then there is very real pain they are absorbing while visiting concentration camps and tracking their grandmother's lived experience which is inextricably linked to the Jewish generational trauma. This film spoke to me and even when Culkin was at his most annoying (and most of the time that kind of character is very off-putting for me), I was still rooting for him. I know people with that personality who at their most charming are intoxicating, but when disregarding societal norms and speaking without regard for how others may perceive them is utterly grating.
The writing in this film is superb and having listened to a number of interviews with Jesse Eisenberg, it turns out that his first love is play writing, not acting. He is so truly good at both. I highly recommend this one, and maybe you'll learn a little something about history along the way.
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