A Real Pain

Jesse Eisenberg: A Real Pain (US 2024) with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin.

US/PL © 2024 Searchlight Pictures. Production companies: Topic Studios, Fruit Tree, Rego Park, Extreme Emotions. Produced by: Ewa Puszczyńska, Jennifer Semler, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Ali Herting, Dave McCary

    Directed by: Jesse Eisenberg

Written by: Jesse Eisenberg

Cinematography: Michał Dymek

Production design: Mela Melak

Costume design: Malgorzata Fudala

Soundtrack: a Frédéric Chopin piano compilation score - pianist: Tzvi Erez

Sound: Tim Korn

Edited by : Robert Nassau

    Cast : Kieran Culkin (Benji Kaplan), Jesse Eisenberg (David Kaplan), Will Sharpe (James), Jennifer Grey (Marcia), Kurt Egyiawan (Eloge), Liza Sadovy (Diane), Daniel Oreskes (Mark), Ellora Torchia (Priya), Eisenberg (Abe), Jakub Gąsowski (réceptionniste), Krzysztof Jaszczak (pianiste), Marek Kasprzyk (homme plus âgé).

    Loc: New York, Warsaw, Lublin - May-June 2023.

    Language: English

    90 min

    Genre : Comédie dramatique

    Release dates:

Festival premiere: January 20, 2024 (Sundance)

Festival sneak preview: August 31, 2024 (Telluride) hors catalogue

November 1, 2024 (United States) Distributed by Searchlight Pictures

November 8, 2024 (Poland)

Finnish premiere: 3 Jan 2025 - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Finland.

Sortie en France : 26 février 2025 - Distributeur : Disney - Sous-titres francais : Chloë Leleu

Budget: $3 million

Box office: $22.4 million

    Vu samedi, le 1 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er 

Telluride Film Festival: "Saturday TBAs / 31 August 2024 Telluride - Chuck Jones' Theater, 1:15PM - Sneak Preview A REAL PAIN (Q&A): "After the death of their beloved grandmother, two cousins, the tightly wound David (Jesse Eisenberg) and the wildly emotional, truth-telling Benji (Kieran Culkin), reunite for an organized tour through Poland. They find their intention — to honor their beloved grandmother — clouded by old frustrations, which organically emerge amidst the challenges of traveling in close quarters. Eisenberg wrote and directed this bittersweet comedy, which calculates the weight of histories, large and small. (U.S., 2024, 89m) In person: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Emma Stone "

Searchlight Pictures summary: "Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother, but their old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history."

Plot in Wikipedia: "Benji Kaplan sits alone at John F. Kennedy International Airport, observing the travelers around him as he waits for his once-close cousin, David, to arrive so they can board their flight. Using the funds left by their late grandmother, the Kaplans planned a Jewish heritage tour through Poland in hopes of seeing the home she grew up in and connect with their family history. Their contrasting personalities spark several arguments. Benji is a free-spirited and outspoken drifter who criticizes David for losing his former passion and spontaneity. David is a pragmatic and reserved family man who struggles with Benji's unfiltered outbursts and lack of direction in life." 

"Arriving at Warsaw, David and Benji meet with their tour group members: Mark and Diane, a retired married couple from Shaker Heights, Ohio; Marcia, a recent divorcee from California; and Eloge, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who converted to Judaism. The tour is led by James, a mild-mannered, knowledgeable, gentile guide from Yorkshire. On the first day, the tour visits the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, Grzybów Square, and the Warsaw Uprising Monument. Benji engages the whole group in assisting him in a reenactment of the Warsaw Uprising around the latter sculpture. An embarrassed David stands apart and takes pictures using the members' phones."

"The group travels to Lublin by train on the second day. Benji is unsettled by the incongruity of traveling first class on a Holocaust tour through former Nazi German-occupied Poland, which results in the cousins missing their stop. After finding their way back, James leads the group through the city's cultural sights, such as the Grodzka Gate and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Benji criticizes James's lack of authenticity during their visit to the cemetery and challenges his focus on facts and statistics. To David's further embarrassment, Benji's outburst connects him with the other group members, who are moved by his energetic honesty. Benji continues to misbehave and make uncomfortable comments during a group dinner later that evening. When he leaves the table, an exhausted David opens up to the group about the complex nature of their relationship. In tears, he shares the mixture of admiration, resentment, and envy that he feels towards his cousin. David also reveals that the two have drifted apart after Benji tried to take his own life by overdosing on sleeping pills six months earlier."

"David and Benji somberly visit Majdanek (Nazi German concentration and extermination camp) during their last day with the group. Before departing, James tells Benji that he is the first person on one of his tours to provide him with feedback, and thanks him for changing his perspective; Benji does not seem to remember the “feedback” encounter. The Kaplans smoke marijuana together on a hotel rooftop on their final night in Poland. Benji confronts David about his changed personality and asks why he never visits him. While David initially responds that he is busy with his wife and son, he eventually breaks down and explains that following Benji's suicide attempt, he is unable to bear the thought of a person with Benji's passion for life killing himself."

"In the morning, the cousins travel to their grandmother's former home in Krasnystaw. Benji recalls a moment when she slapped him after he arrived late and intoxicated to dinner, which gave him a sense of clarity and humility. He laments that she was the only person who was able to keep him disciplined. David suggests that they place visitation stones on the home as an act of remembrance, but a neighbor asks them to remove the stones because they are a tripping hazard. The pair flies back to New York and exchanges goodbyes. David invites Benji to his home for dinner and offers to give him a ride to Penn Station so that he can catch a train home to Binghamton. Benji declines the offers, prompting David to slap him. They immediately reconcile and profess that they care deeply about each other. David returns home to his wife and son, leaving a visitation stone on his doorstep. Benji returns to his seat at the airport and timidly observes the travelers."

L'Officiel des Spectacles: Présentation: " David et Benji, deux cousins aux caractères diamétralement opposés, se retrouvent à l'occasion d'un voyage en Pologne afin d'honorer la mémoire de leur grand-mère bien-aimée. Leur odyssée va prendre une tournure inattendue lorsque les vieilles tensions de ce duo improbable vont refaire surface avec, en toile de fond, l'histoire de leur famille. "

" Vingt ans avant A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg, réalisateur et acteur principal du film, s'est rendu en Pologne dans la maison où sa tante a vécu avant que sa famille soit déportée pendant l'Holocauste. De ce voyage, l'Américain avait déjà tiré une pièce, qu'il avait essayé d'adapter au cinéma, sans succès. C'est après avoir vu, par hasard, une publicité sur un voyage autour des sites de l'Holocauste que Jesse Eisenberg a finalement trouvé le bon cadre à son histoire, qui lui vaut une nomination à l'Oscar du meilleur scénario original en 2025.  "

AA: Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain is one of the best films of the year 2024. The title at first resonates with the "odd couple" concept familiar from Neil Simon and Billy Wilder comedies starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

The beloved Jewish grandmother of two cousins (David / Jesse Eisenberg, Benjy / Kieran Culkin) has died and bequeathed them a fund to visit her native Poland. They embark on a guided Jewish heritage tour, and the film proceeds as a road movie. 

As an external travel record, A Real Pain is challenges cliches. But it is also an internal road movie. Everybody is trying to make sense where they come from, first geographically, and with wider implications in the memory quest.

The title gradually loses buddy comedy connotations. Benjy is recovering from a suicide attempt and David struggles to come to terms with it, as well. Others are also dealing with personal pain. Marcia (Jennifer Grey) has recently divorced. The surprise member of the tour is Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and a convert to Judaism because he found in Jews companions in fate. The Majdanek sequence finally reveals the darkest sense of the movie's title.

The film sets in motion reflections in widening circles, from the private to the general, from the unique to the global. Most importantly, it sets in motion a journey in depth. Our understanding of the characters keeps growing during the movie and afterwards. A Real Pain turns into a transgenerational saga.

Well written, directed and photographed, incarnated by a brilliant cast, A Real Pain also displays a fine sense of the spirit of the place. The soundtrack decision - a compilation of Chopin's piano classics - is certainly obvious, but there are situations in which the obvious is best, such as Beethoven for Napoleon. Chopin introduces a timeless dimension to the masterful movie.