A Real Pain starts and ends at the same spot. Two cousins, David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), as close as brothers, attempt to heal their generational trauma and their relationship with each other by flying out to Poland to visit their late grandmother’s house. But most trips abroad, no matter the weight of transformation we place on them, start and end at the same spot. Usually, it’s an airport terminal hall.
The real test of how much we’ve been transformed only occurs once we’ve reentered the quotidian cycle of our lives. Yet Eisenberg, also the film’s writer and director, makes a provocative choice here. We never find out what happens next. A Real Pain is a film that’s really an ellipsis. That’s where it derives its tender power.
