"We stay moving, we stay light, we stay agile." Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin)
A Real Pain is a comedy, yes, handily crafted by writer/director Jesse Eisenberg, yet it is also a serious drama about the differences between two Jewish cousins traveling Poland in honor of their recently deceased grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. This buddy film is a study of two different characters and their relationship to each other and their Jewish history.
David (Eisenberg) is John Milton's Il Penseroso and Benji is his L'Allegro, two opposites, the former characterized by melancholy and the latter mirth. David is the grounded, nerdy, contemplative one and Benji (Kieran Culkin) the off-the-wall motormouth whose joys nevertheless bear thinking about. His advice (above) to David to stay cool as they avoid paying for their train ticket has David's careful thinking combined with Benji's chutzpa.
Less the bi-polar nut, Benji is rather a funny, smart boy-man too smart to say stupid things and too immature to tone it down. The sympathetic soul of the movie is in his character, who connects with the other Holocaust tourists in an inspired way that makes them remember him. When they tour a concentration camp, however, barely a word is spoken: as if the history of the genocide weighs too heavily for words. Only Benji's words that advise the guide, non-Jewish James (Will Sharpe), to find the real emotion in the statistics he offers, make a difference.
Although Benji can be opinionated, he resonates with the pleasant Rwandan, Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), a convert to Judaism, and middle-aged Marcia (Jennifer Gray), a melancholic waiting to be freed from her sadness over her divorce. Writer/director Eisenberg never allows either character to gain our censure. Despite Benji's recently severe dark moment, David worries about his rootless, charismatic cousin. The director shows gently the complexity of human personality and the differences family members have no matter the circumstances.
Even more than a balanced depiction of two completely different relatives, A Real Pain shows the emotional benefits of L'Allegro and the grounded reality of Il Penseroso. They are, after all, blood relatives, almost brothers, who are vastly different but under the history of the Holocaust and their grandmother, just like the rest of us trying to understand the horror and the joy of living. A buddy movie it is, but all about words, not action as in Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid.
This light comedy-drama should be a heavyweight contender for Oscar.
