Feeling a Real Pain at the Multiplex

I had looked forward forweeks to seeing the new film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, of TheSocial Network fame. A Real Pain is a serious but at times veryfunny indie about two first cousins traveling to today’s Poland as part of aJewish Heritage tour. Their Polish grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and ofcourse the memories of that 20th century tragedy inform the film,which includes a genuinely solemn visit to the actual Majdanek deathcamp near Lublin. But the focus is on the two young men whose more comfortablelives in America have not saved them from a deeply internalized sort of pain.

 The two are played byEisenberg himself and by Kieran Culkin, who recently scored big with the TVminiseries, Succession. As per usual, Eisenberg plays a neurotic type,outwardly living a wholesome life with a wife, a kid, and a high-tech job, butinwardly a bundle of nerves. Culkin, who has received major attention for hisrole, is the apparent free spirit, still smoking weed in his mother’s basementwhile deciding what he wants to do when he grows up. His Benji Kaplan is,though, much more complicated than that. Yes, he knows how to have fun, and helives by the mantra that rules are meant to be broken, but at times hedissolves into a profound grief from which he cannot easily be rescued.

 Naturally, these two interact,with varying degrees of success, with the others on the tour: an older couple, adeeply spiritual Rwandan convert to Judaism, and a middle-aged woman (JenniferGrey) dealing with relationship problems of her own. There’s also an earnestBritish tour guide who is not Jewish but is somehow caught up in the tragedy ofthe European Jewish story. What’s instructive—and highly believable—is how hardall of these fellow travelers are trying to show their best selves on a journeyso fraught with emotion.

 So, yes, I really liked thefilm. In its modest, concise way, it has a great deal to say about pain and itsmanifestations, large and small. There was only one problem. We all know thatwhen movies are coming into theatres, exhibitors show “coming attractions”trailers designed to arose the curiosity of the moviegoing public. Thesetrailers are meant to be enticing, but at times they try a little too hard. Itso happens that I saw A Real Pain at the Santa Monica branch of theLaemmle theatre chain. The Laemmles, related to the long-ago honcho ofUniversal Studios, have been for decades a family dedicated to screening greatindependent films. (Their motto: “Not Afraid of Subtitles.”) Before everyscreening at a Laemmle theatre there’s a black & white intro, meant to lookold-fashioned, comically warning about trailers, because they may containviolence, sex, bad language, the whole plot of the movie, etc. etc. etc. One ofthe many things you’re warned about is trailers that contain all the film’sbest lines.

 That, I’m afraid, is whatstruck me after I finally saw A Real Pain. As a frequent moviegoer, I’dwatched that trailer several times in various theatres,  And so when I sat down to watch the film, Iknew about a few plot twists, and had already heard—several timesover—Eisenberg’s very best speech, the one that puts David’s entirerelationship with cousin Benjy into perspective. So although my moviecompanions were thrilled by this film, I pretty much felt I’d seen it before .. . because I had. What a shame that this painful story no longer felt fresh.