A Real Pain is a remarkable feature film written, directed, produced and starring Jesse Eisenberg, which was screened at the 2024 Rio Festival. This comedy-drama provides us with a deeply emotional experience by addressing themes such as grief, memory and the complexities of generations of immigrants.
The film follows two cousins who leave the United States for a trip to Poland in an attempt to reconnect with their Jewish roots. Kieran Culkin, whose performance has already won him a Golden Globe recently, steals the show with a performance that is both hilarious and moving. If in Succession his character Roman Roy was a figure full of irony and tension, here Culkin delivers something more multidimensional. His expression is always alive, oscillating quickly between irony, comedy and playful hostility, as he encapsulates the complexity of human pain and humor. Eisenberg allows the film to be frequently dominated by Culkin’s performance.
There are many close-ups of Culkin, slowly revealing the hidden emotional layers, giving us moments where it seems possible to see his future older self and his past/present marked by pain, a timeless figure who could be any age. This directorial touch reveals the depth of pain and authentic experience that permeates the entire film.
But what makes A Real Pain a unique experience is the immersion in the “in-between” — the vast window of self-discovery that inhabits the silence of the curtains opening and closing on a show. Through a journey filled with memories and architectural landscapes of Poland, historical and personal recognition becomes palpable as the cousins explore everything from concentration camps to monuments of celebration, transforming the sightseeing tour into a journey of reverence and contemplation.
Amidst the laughter and tears, the film is, in fact, an ode to the pains of the soul, showing us how to laugh amid the tragic moments of adulthood. Eisenberg challenges us to see loneliness not just as isolation, but as an opportunity for solitude and a new perspective on grief. He uses his lack of social tact and quirky humor to deliver a captivating narrative about two cousins who live in different moments but find common ground in their search for their roots.
A Real Pain invites the viewer to embark on an emotional narrative that is less about how it all ends, but about the journey itself – the path between the beginning and the end, where life really happens. The film, with its individual character and distinctive identity, transforms life’s losses into comedy and contemplation, bringing to light the beauty in pain and rebirth. After all, we are all survivors because living is surviving real pain.
You can find A Real Pain in theaters starting January 30th.
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