I am just back from seeing ‘A Real Pain’ which is directed by an actor called Jesse Eisenberg who also stars in the film as one of the main characters.

I must have seen the trailer to this film at one of the other films I saw recently at my local cinema since I was already familiar with the premise and knew Eisenberg was in it. For people who don’t recognise the name, he was Zuckerberg in A Social Network (the Facebook film). The film is about two American cousins who have Jewish-Polish heritage and who are visiting Poland to learn about their family heritage. The film title’s meaning only really becomes apparent at the end that the real pain that is referred to is in fact one of the cousins. Pain in the sense that he’s annoying to be around, ‘he’s a real pain.’

Of the two cousins, there is Eisenberg who is the successful one with a stable job and a wife and a young child. The other cousin was called Benjee in the film, played by an actor I didn’t know called Culkin. Benjee is apparently an unemployed, cannabis smoking adult who lives with his mother. 

The film starts with the two cousins meeting at New York airport before flying to Warsaw, Poland where they meet the rest of the tour group and the tour guide. The rest of the group are much older than the cousins with one elderly couple, one divorced lady, one Rwandan Jewish convert man and the British tour guide. 

The group visit various places in Poland including a concentration camp before the cousins leave them (the tour group) in order to visit their grandmother’s previous home. Eventually the cousin’s fly back to New York where Benjee apparently goes back to loitering about without purpose and Eisenberg goes back to his family.

I thought this film was very interesting, firstly for the fact it doesn’t really have an obvious (dumbed down) message like a Spielberg film for instance. Obviously the film title itself refers to the fact Benjee is unemployed and aimless and is a pain to society and the tour group. However I think the film does an excellent job in showing in Benjee’s own way he contributes to the group like for instance when he gets the whole group to pose for pictures at the war memorial and it is in fact Eisenberg who is left standing on his own (with his pride and subtle sense of superiority). Another telling point of the film is when Benjee goes to the bathroom at the restaurant and Eisenberg goes on a rant and attacks Benjee for having made an attempt on his own life in the past 6 months (in front of the group). Many of the other tour group members attack Benjee while he is away, in their own unhelpful way. At the end of the scene Benjee is found to be playing the restaurant piano and of course his talents are once again revealed. Eisenberg again is left on his own and he walks home alone to his hotel.

One thing I thought was quite interesting was the tour group learning about how the Jews suffered under the Nazi’s in the 1930s and 1940s Poland. But in present day America once again it is the weak that fall through the cracks of society (Benjee) and the so called competent members of society (Eisenberg and rest of the tour group) that thrive and even do the attacking. Survival of the fittest? Are the two societies so different?? 

The films ends with Benjee sitting at the airport apparently pointlessly after he declines Eisenberg’s invitation to dinner with his family.

I guess perhaps some of the other people at the cinema saw a lost cause in Benjee at the end of the film but I myself saw potential. Lots of people are a bit lost in their young adult years. Lots of people work it out in the end.

I’ll just finish by saying I noticed this film failed the Bechdel test (to have two named female characters have a conversation about a topic other than another male character). I was looking out for the whole film to see if it would pass!