Sundance Film Festival Review: ‘A Real Pain’ is a Funny and Moving Sophomore Feature from Jesse Eisenberg

A few Sundance Film Festival installments ago, Jesse Eisenberg unveiled his filmmaking debut, When You Finish Saving the World. That was a touching work, though it really only set the stage for his sophomore feature, A Real Pain. This movie mixes very funny travel humor with some truly empathetic emotions. Considering the material, it would be easy to fumble this, but Eisenberg is more than up to the challenge. This is the best work I saw during my Sundance viewing this year.

A Real Pain continues to show how Eisenberg is a talented filmmaker, in addition to a gifted actor. He’s got a sense of how to make a dramedy, knowing when to be funny, when to be serious, and how to mix it all. The fact that it also intertwines grief, the Holocaust, and even suicide, that just means the degree of difficulty here is pretty large. The fact that he’s able to ace it so easily makes you very excited for what he has planned behind the camera in the future.

David (Eisenberg) and his cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin) are headed to Poland in order to visit the homeland of their recently departed grandmother, who they both adored. Benji especially was close to her and has been having a tough time of it. The cousins once were close, but these days, David is an uptight but successful New Yorker, working in digital ad sales alongside having a wife and young child, while Benji is still kind of fumbling around in Binghamton. At the same time, as soon as they’re at the airport, you can see how Benji is an unfiltered extrovert, something that David is both befuddled by and jealous of.

In Poland, they’re a part of a tour that will start in Warsaw before continuing on to the Majdanek Concentration Camp, before the cousins split from the group to visit their grandmother’s home. While the tour is meant for Jewish Americans, the guide is a British man named James (Will Sharpe) who is neither. Joining David and Benji here are middle aged divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey), retired couple Diane (Liza Sadovy) and Mark (Daniel Oreskes), as well as Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), who converted after fleeing genocide in Rwanda. While David struggles to connect, Benji does with ease. However, his behavior is also erratic, with cracks showing in the cool facade that suggest some very real trauma.

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg are both excellent, with Culkin especially going above and beyond. His blend of coolness and spaciness, as well as the deep well of sadness he’s tapping into is something to behold. This might just be the best work of his career so far. Eisenberg is playing a part that he can easily do, but he’s giving it some new edges. Together, they make for a consistently compelling pair to watch. The supporting work from the members of the tour is solid yet low-key, befitting the story, while Banner Eisenberg and Ellora Torchia round out the cast. Culkin and Eisenberg are simply the focus, and rightly so.

Writing and directing, Eisenberg continues to raise his filmmaking game, especially by adding the challenge of acting in the work as well. The pacing here is strong, the jokes land, and the pathos is real. It takes a bit to get on its wavelength early on, but once you do, it’s smooth sailing. Credit also goes to Eisenberg for making sure that A Real Pain doesn’t shortchange the tragedy it’s playing with. The concentration camp scene is played quietly and respectfully, earning its power without every calling extra attention to anything. It’s a confident and mature filmmaking decision from someone clearly in control of their craft.

A Real Pain showcases not just Eisenberg as a multi-hyphenate, but Culkin’s acting chops as well. I can’t wait to see what Eisenberg does next as a filmmaker. Online access only limited my Sundance viewings this year, but of the movies I saw, this is the cream of the crop.

SCORE: ★★★