by Julian Wood

Year:  2024

Director:  Jesse Eisenberg

Rated:  MA

Release:  26 December 2024

Distributor: Disney

Running time: 90 minutes

Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

Cast:
Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey

Intro:
… an unambitious film, well-realised enough to be a crowd pleaser.

Putting two contrasting personalities into a tricky situation is a staple of screenwriting, so in a sense, there are no surprises in Jesse Eisenberg’s latest writing/directing effort (his debut was 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World). We kind of know what the set-up is and also how it will end. This means that the film has to win us over by the force of the writing and the performances.

The trump card here is Kieran Culkin, who plays Benji Kaplan, the somewhat impossible cousin to the steadier David (played by Eisenberg). From the moment that stoner Benji turns up at the airport for their trip to finally see their grandmother in Poland, we know that David’s patience is going to be tried.

Although it is ostensibly David’s story too, it is Benji who grabs all the attention, leaving the David character to be more of a foil. Fortunately for the film, Culkin is in top form, and he doesn’t miss a beat in making Benji the most annoying character whilst also allowing us to see how David (and the family) couldn’t help loving him.

Culkin, of course, played Roman, the black sheep of the family in the small screen sensation Succession. All his fecklessness and druggy irresponsibility is in evidence again. But so too is his warmth and frequent insight into the emotional truth of things. Whereas David prides himself on being organised and grown up, Benji revels in precisely the opposite and he jeers at straight people who think they are being so responsible. We have seen Eisenberg do his schtick before too. He is adept at playing intelligent but nervy and watchful characters who can grasp things, but often fail to really be decisive.

Obviously, the Benjis of this world rely on steady people like David but, at the same time, we sense that those around him would give their eye teeth to be as spontaneous and alive as he is. In Succession, Culkin often effortlessly stole whole episodes with his wise-cracking cockiness. This film doesn’t want the casting ‘shadow’ of Roman to completely overpower things, but A Real Pain wouldn’t be half as engaging without him. The chemistry between the leads is convincing and it helps that the film’s emotional beats are mostly earned (it needs to go near some dark territory as a Jewish journey to the heart of a once-genocidal Europe). It is also farcical and funny when it needs to be. All in all, this is an unambitious film, well-realised enough to be a crowd pleaser.

8Crowd please
score
8
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