Pain, empathy, and naturalistic humor find potent symmetry in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, the actor’s second feature-length journey behind the camera. Writing, directing, and co-starring, Eisenberg has created an honest examination of existential despair that sidesteps pretentiousness and finds its lead characters in a place where time has not healed the wounds of generational trauma. For the characters that populate this film, their very existence continues to be impacted by their shared past. While Eisenberg’s screenplay toys with a rather bleak outlook on humanity, it manages to infuse some very funny moments, finding sprinkles of hope in the inherent kindness of the human heart. 

A Real Pain tells the story of David (Eisenberg), and his trip with his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin), as the two fly from New York to Poland to visit the childhood home of their grandmother, a holocaust survivor who has recently died. The two men miss one another, but there is something awkward and perplexing about their rekindled relationship. Both are excited to reconnect, but there is a trepidation that blankets their reunion as their diametrically opposed lifestyles make David feel awkward. Benji is feeling “off” as well, but he tries his best to hide it by being outwardly energetic and boisterous. David is the family man who is a compulsive worrier while Benji is the freewheeling journeyman who projects love, but who will also throw a few emotional monkey-wrenches into any moment that becomes too real. 

Led by their soft-spoken British Oxford History scholar tour guide, James (Will Sharpe), David and Benji are part of a small group of tourists who have signed on for a tour of the historical areas of Lublin and Lubelskie. Where many films try too hard to create different backgrounds for their ensemble casts to where it becomes cliché, Eisenberg’s script is smart in how it paints its characters with a realistic and respectful brush. Jennifer Grey is a welcome presence as a divorcee immersed in melancholy. Daniel Oreskes and Liza Sadavoy are an older couple there to see the history of the area, although the husband doesn’t seem to care much. Kurt Egyiawan is unexpectedly touching as a Tutsi survivor of the Rwandan genocide who has converted to Judaism.

As the group tools around to different holocaust memorials, A Real Pain allows these side characters to become an important part of David and Benji’s journey. Each person is carrying generational pain and the tour is to be a catharsis, of sorts. As unpredictable as Bengi’s moods, the screenplay surprises from scene to scene with its consistent emotional pull towards every character. Eisenberg’s deft and perceptive writing assures we will care about these folks and remember our time with them long after the film ends. We are happy to be fellow passengers on their journey.

One of the film’s most powerful aspects is how the Holocaust isn’t used as a dramatic prop. For the Jewish people, that dark time in history is a continuing source of anguish and heartbreak that is tethered to their culture for eternity. Eisenberg uses this inescapable truth, but doesn’t exploit it. For much of the tour, the group engages with one another, creating a sometimes jovial aura, although each one is working through a personal pain. David, Benji, and the rest of their group share in the generations of personal loss that began with industrialized murder of their people during World War II. 

The picture’s most powerful segment comes when the tour reaches the Majdanek concentration camp in the outskirts of Lublin. For both the film’s characters and its audience, it is a sobering experience to see how close the camp is to civilization; society continues as the symbol of genocide sits just outside the city. For most of the film, Eisenberg uses the work of Chopin (played by Israeli-Canadian pianist Tzvi Erez) to great effect, as the composer’s piano compositions perfectly color the tonal beats of the screenplay. For this moment, Jesse Eisenberg removes the music and embraces the heaviness of the silences. The group moves through the camp, becoming immersed in the memories of brutality, sadness, and death. They stand face to face with the ovens and the gas chambers whose walls are still stained by the gasses used to kill the Jewish people. An overwhelming moment comes when they turn to see a huge glass structure filled with thousands of shoes that belonged to the thousands of murdered men, women, and children. When Eisnberg chooses to reveal the structure, it is done in a simple cut, but in that simplicity lies a sobering gut-punch of reality. In one striking shot, A Real Pain encompasses the ugly legacy of the Holocaust and the enduring spirit of the Jewsih people.

Cinematographer Michal Dymek uses natural light to capture the inside of the camp. Where his visual compositions of the Polish architecture have been intoxicating in their aesthetic, Eisenberg and his cameraman understand the profundity of this segment. Both visually and dramatically, the film uses this time for quiet reflection, allowing the outside world in, so all can share in the significance of experiencing such a staggeringly insightful moment.

Kieran Culkin is acting perfection as he traverses Benji’s many complexities and unpredictable moods with ease, never striking a false or unbelievable note. The character walks an imperfect balance of needing to connect with his fellow travelers and finding contempt for a tour of such meaningful and sacred places. As David tells him, ​​“You light up a room and then you shit on everything inside it.” Benji’s cheerful attitude occasionally gives way to an endearing vulnerability and sometimes reveals a polarizing rage. Culkin’s portrayal is skillful and fearless as the actor perfectly captures the duality of the human condition. 

Eisenberg takes the normal role of “a man who learns more about himself through others” and makes something heartfelt and relatable out of his character. David’s neuroses are humorous, but never played for straight comedy. Eisenberg writes and performs his creation with gravitas and the type of instinctive (and often sardonic) wit found in the best works of filmmakers such as Woody Allen and Jim Jarmusch. This is a great, multi-layered, performance that stands as the best of the actor’s already impressive career.

As David and Benji work out their personal issues with one another and the film reveals the reason for their long separation (the two were inseparable for most of their lives), they grasp a deeper understanding of the pain that binds them. For the two cousins, it becomes easier to navigate their personal suffering as they realize the scope of the monumental trauma that is the history of their people. David and Benji can find a path out of their pain, or maybe better ways to overcome it. The Jewish communities of today are still fighting ignorance and racism. Sadly, their suffering remains. 

A Real Pain has a light touch, but only in its design. Inside the film’s text is something more appropriately somber and deeply profound. This is a good film about good people trying to exist through the unbearable weight of their collective generational pain. For the characters who inhabit this wonderful piece, the world continues to knock the wind out of them. While they may not find the answers that will quell their decades of hurt (nor will Eisenberg offer facile platitudes), perhaps this short time of communal bonding will lead to a brighter outlook. The film gives audiences hope that David, Benji, and the others will no longer allow their pain to define them. 

Jesse Eisenberg has created that rarest of gems in today’s cinema; an existential and intellectual work done with humor and intelligence.

A Real Pain opens in the DC area Friday, November 15 and wider around the country in the coming weeks.

A Real Pain

Written and Directed by Jesse Eisenberg

Starring Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Jennifer Grey, Will Sharpe, Kurt Egyiawan, Daniel Oreskes, Liza Sadavoy

R, 90 Minutes, Searchlight Pictures, Topic Studios, Extreme Emotions, Fruit Tree