Ninety minutes isn’t very long in the grand scheme of things.
But writer-director-producer-star Jesse Eisenburg makes the most of the hour-and-a-half film for which he is primarily responsible, and which opened at The SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre November 14.
A Real Pain is a travelogue, of sorts. It transports you to Poland for “a tour about pain (and people),” according to tour guide James (an earnest-to-a-fault Will Sharpe), who leads Eisenburg’s uptight character David, David’s free-spirited-but-complicated cousin Benji (an excellent Kieran Culkin), and four other Jewish tourists on memorable outings to (among other places) a concentration camp, a graveyard, and the memorial and monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The subject of ‘A Real Pain’ is indeed pain, but seeing the film isn’t a painful experience.”
What’s notable is that there isn’t a moment wasted in this tightly engineered production. The script doesn’t hurry, though—it’s as if every word, every beat conveys meaningful information about David and Benji, their shared history, or their current relationship. Even philosophical exchanges that Benji sparks among his fellow travelers add to our understanding of these two unique individuals.
This isn’t a comedy, although there are some relatable, recognizably funny moments that naturally flow from the interaction of the characters. We don’t learn much about the other tourists (a welcome Jennifer Grey, an engaging Kurt Egyiawan, and Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes as a long-married couple) but their parts are written with a sense of them being real people with real backstories.
A lovely surprise—which shouldn’t be surprising at all given the film’s setting—is the soundtrack, almost entirely composed of piano pieces by Polish-born Frédéric Chopin, performed by the Israeli–Canadian classical pianist and music producer Tzvi Erez. The music is as spare but as full of meaning as Eisenburg’s script and directorial decisions.
The subject of A Real Pain is indeed pain, but seeing the film isn’t a painful experience. Watching Eisenburg’s exploration of human nature as exemplified by the differences and surprising commonalities of two cousins who try to connect through their family history turns out to be a very satisfying experience.
And of course, there’s the Chopin . . .