37/26

Tale

Mismatched cousins ​​reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother

The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.. When Benji and David visit their grandmother's home in Poland, the location is where Jesse Eisenberg' s real-life ancestors settled in diaspora.. Benji Kaplan: We stay moving, we stay light, we stay agile.David Kaplan: Yeah.Benji Kaplan: The conductor’s gonna come through, taking tickets, we tell him we’re going to the bathroom.David Kaplan: Bathroom.Benji Kaplan: He gets to the back of the train, he starts heading towards the front looking for stragglers.David Kaplan: Sorry, we’re the stragglers?Benji Kaplan: Yeah. By the time he gets to the front, the train’s gonna be in the station and we’re home free.David Kaplan: This is so fucking stupid.

Featured in CBS News Sunday Morning: Episode #4644 (2024)

Tickets are probably like twelve bucks.Benji Kaplan: It’s the principle of the thing. We should not have to pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.David Kaplan: No, it’s not, it was our country. They kicked us out ’cause they thought we were cheap..

A Real PainAs an American of Polish descent, A Real Pain interested me with the premise

Two cousins ​​had lost their grandmother, and they chose to visit Poland where she had come from, and escaped the Holocaust. The film then hits you hard in the feels with the literal, figurative, metaphorical and emotional definitions of A Real Pain.Kieran Culkin is absolutely phenomenal in this film playing Benji, who is so lost in the world after his grandmother's death , that the pain erupts in ways that are heartbreaking and understandable.I relate to the character a lot because Benji clearly shows signs of bipolar disorder that manifests in emotions so strong that you feel them along with him. He can express silliness, sadness, intense grief, human sentimentality, joy and frustration all at the same time. It's dizzying but it's so raw and real.Jesse Eisenberg, playing his cousin David, does his usual character of bumbling anxiety that is growing tiresome.

Everyone interacts with Benji in such a way that it just gets more and more real and relatableUgh!

But in this film, it works, because David tends to play the role of the mirror reflecting back to Benji what it's like to not experience the pain. The characters play well off each other as one feels too much, and one doesn't feel at all.This film was spectacular. It's filled with so much emotional nuance that I want to see it again just to watch Benji's body language and facial expressions again as my heart is ripped apart along with his. The plot itself is very basic, but it's the impact on the characters that is most important.I haven't even commented on the other characters in the film, but they're just as important.

Go see this

It's a roller coaster.