The Unfettered Critic – March 2025

WHEN WE HEARD that Jesse Eisenberg had written, directed, and starred in an upcoming motion picture, we were intrigued. We’d first taken note of the New York-based actor in 2010, when he wowed us as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. By that time, he’d already appeared in over a dozen movies, so we knew that his acting career had merit. Yet news of his soon-to-debut triple-threat project made us look beyond his thespian activity, and were surprised to learn that he’d already hit the hyphenate mark (writer-director-star) in 2022, with his film When You Finish Saving the World.

Well, jeez—where had we been? We decided we had to see this new movie before we were left on the metaphorical cutting room floor once again.

Eisenberg titled his new film A Real Pain. It’s the kind of title that could fit an ironic comedy or a tragic drama, and we couldn’t guess which, because the movie’s trailer showed Eisenberg paired with actor Kieran Culkin. Our memories of Culkin went back to his role as the youngest member of Steve Martin’s family in the 1991 comedy Father of the Bride. So, this could be a purely comedic role, although more recently Culkin had excelled in the humorously dark television series Succession.

So we streamed A Real Pain, hoping to learn whether the title refers to a character or a situation. As it turns out, it’s both.

Eisenberg and Culkin play cousins who once were best friends: David—a clearly neurotic but comfortably married father—and Benji, a charismatic but strangely erratic loner.

Together, they travel to Poland, the birthplace of their recently deceased grandmother. The trip is her farewell gift to the pair; it seems she wanted them to understand the past—her past, which included time in a concentration camp—as they move forward in their own lives. The cousins enjoy this chance to reunite after a long separation, but it’s clear that they no longer are ideal companions.

Joining the duo on this trip is a group of similar travelers, all interested in exploring the past, although from different perspectives. Some, like the cousins, are offspring of Holocaust survivors, others merely interested in that horrific period. One woman seeks to escape the pain of her divorce by going somewhere even more painful. One man who escaped from a tragedy is hoping to lose his survival guilt by converting to Judaism. The guide leading the group into Poland’s dark past isn’t Jewish, but is a historically-informed outsider. In a way, the guide represents us, the viewer, as we travel, by train, by bus, and by foot, to—and into—the camp, preserved by Poland as a symbol of what happened there.

The cousins realize that but for “a thousand miracles,” their grandmother would not have survived, nor would the two of them exist today. This excursion brings them together, while at the same time exposes how greatly they’ve grown apart.

Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is a heartfelt endeavor. Indulging in a film often feels like cracking open a novel filled with characters and plot twists. This one “reads” more as a short story: well-crafted and tightly focused. Many viewers will feel the emotional resonance portrayed here, to emerge with enhanced knowledge and feelings. It’s not a comedy (although it does have some fun moments) nor a tragedy (although some scenes may elicit a tear). It will guide each viewer into a personal psychological trip—not as an outing to be celebrated, but as a brush with the past that each of us is stronger knowing—even if we don’t quite understand what we’re feeling.