When we departed the movie theatre after viewing 'A Real Pain' we were quite pleased with the experience. Not a great film but a film for adults, about adults; adult issues, conflicts, resolutions. The night passed and when we woke the next morning we both asked the same questions. (1) What was it really about? And (2) were the questions and issues raised by the film resolved, even answered, in any way? To which we said (1) I don't know and (2) No.
Not a good reaction to a film that on its face is trying hard to make a point, leave an impression, have a point of view.
Kieran Culkin and Director Jessie Eisenberg portray close cousins who journey to Poland to visit the land of their recently deceased and dearly beloved grandmother. Culkin is somewhere on today's psychological spectrum while Eisenberg is a tight, constrained, family man and good provider, Eisenberg's character holding his cousin on a long leash throughout the journey. Even so, Culkin's character proves to be a fire-starter in both good and bad ways, for the ninety minutes run-time infuriating some members of the travel group, while entertaining others.
And then the film ends. It ends where it began, at New York's JFK-airport, the trip concluded, the cousins parting, the credits scrolling on the screen. And while their trip seems to have been a success, we can't say why, or what the two took away from the experience, and how their lives might be changed.
One more thing. The Holacost. The trip takes us through Poland where the Warsaw Jews put up fierce resistance, and where millions of them were murdered in the gas-chambers of the Camps; one of which is visited by the cousins. And this is heavy stuff, a heavy subject. It is like the introduction of a gun in a movie; it has to go off or be otherwise significant. But I truly cannot say what role The Holacost plays. Yes, of course the Jews suffered pain. And the film's title is 'Real Pain'. And Culkin's cousin proves to be a 'real pain'. And yes, pain is a relative thing; what is painful in one relationship might not be so in another. Yes, yes, and yes., Even so, 'The Holacost angle', for me it didn't work. But it should have.
Finally, Jennifer Gray, she of 'Dirty Dancing'; she plays one of members of the tour group. And she was pretty darn perfect.
