REVIEW: ‘A Real Pain’ is a real disappointment

If you ever wanted to see Roman Roy from “Succession” hang out with Mark Zuckerberg, but without the money, this is sort of the movie for you.

No, that’s not quite accurate, although the film does star Kieran Culkin from the hit HBO series and “The Social Network’s” Jesse Eisenberg. In this film they play two cousins, David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin), who are visiting Poland to learn about their grandmother’s home town, and experience surviving the Holocaust.

To do so, they join a historical tour through various towns in the country with several other interested people and a knowledgeable guide. During their time on the tour, they not only have their eyes opened about family history, but what’s been happening in their own lives, too.

Odd couples are a fairly standard trait in films. From road trip movies to buddy cop flicks, the alliance of a by-the-books, strait-laced person and an individual who doesn’t play by the rules and has their own quirks is quite common. In most cases, it works just fine, but that’s not quite the case here.

The reason it doesn’t work in “A Real Pain” is how Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed, created the character Benji. It seems as though Eisenberg wanted to capture the manic and eccentric nature of Culkin’s character in “Succession,” and bring it into this film a similar character, though, one more capable of some compassion.

The problem is that type of character can be a lot some times to deal with. In fact that character can get downright annoying. However, in “Succession” it could work because the character could either largely get away with it in that universe because of his obscene wealth, or get push back from his other sibling who didn’t put up with his bs.

It’s different in “A Real Pain.” This time around Benji often gets to be an insufferable character, interrupting people, complaining about David not being as willing to do things because he’s grown up too much and causing annoyances on the tour. What’s worse, is he doesn’t even really have an arc.

See, the film wants the audience to believe that Benji is actually the one who has it all together despite being depressed since his grandma died. He’s eccentric, he strikes up conversations with anybody, he’s playful, challenges authority on the tour and even plays the piano.

Such characters who are more of a free spirit or off-kilter from the norm are fine if they are charming and endearing. Think John Candy’s character in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” But that’s not really the case here, Benji is honestly never really likable and it makes it a slog to get through this movie.

A great example that sums up the fatigue with this character is a moment where he’s having lunch with David, and the latter inquires about a conversation Benji was having with a woman on the tour about why she was there. In that moment with the woman, and earlier, Benji seemed entirely fine getting into meaty discussions and breaking customary norms.

But then when David tries to connect with his cousin and learn about what was talked about, suddenly Benji wants to shut down and says it’s not right to get into it. This character gets to be inquisitive with everyone, get into peoples’ personal space, and unafraid to dig into a person’s life, but then can’t share some gossip with his cousin? Give me a break.

It sounds like this review is really being harsh with this character. However, he’s practically the lynchpin for the movie’s story, so he is largely relevant, which is to the movie’s detriment. On top of him being annoying, him being much of the catalyst for the drama in the movie feels entirely counterproductive to focusing on what should be the main draw here.

This is a movie that should be a family drama about connecting with what their relatives went through in the Holocaust. That should be the driving factor here. What’s astounding is this is the second movie this year that misses the mark on this subject like this.

Earlier this year, the movie “Treasure” was released, where a woman traveled to Poland with her dad, and the two of them also go on a Holocaust tour. But in that movie, the woman was getting over a divorce, there were self-harm references, and she had to deal with her dad flirting with other tourists.

Meanwhile in this one, it’s Benji being the one striking up conversations while also dealing with his depression and David trying to manage it all. Like the movie from earlier this year, all of this does nothing but bloat the film with less-than-engaging melodrama, while the real reason the main characters are even on the trip in the first place gets sidelined.

It’s too bad because one can appreciate Eisenberg trying to be ambitious as a first-time director by helming a project about this subject matter, but the execution is rough. The writing for the characters is the same way, and it’s why the two central leads don’t work well, even with Eisenberg and Culkin being talented performers.

The film is well made enough technically and the cast tries to make the material function, making “A Real Pain” at times watchable. However, it’s just really tough to get over the dynamic of one of the central characters, and the lack of depth when it comes to the Holocaust subject matter. Some may be able to get past it, but not everyone. 2 out of 5.