A Real Pain

A Real Pain is such a perfect, double-meaning title for Jesse Eisenberg’s thought-provoking, charming, funny and brilliant new film.

It's a sweet and sour buddy comedy following two Jewish cousins who go on a tour of Poland after the death of their grandmother to honour her legacy.

There they find kinship, ponder their differences and try to find meaning in their feelings of modern pain when cast against that felt in history.

It’s such a simple idea layered and imbued with deeper meaning, genuine heart and feeling and nuanced and moving performances.

Eisenberg doesn’t go for flash, enabling the performances to shine and the charm of the locations to shine through.

He uses Chopin piano pieces to usher in scene changes and this feeds back into the sense of place and tone and he keeps the film to a concise 90 minutes.

Within that, he layers these two central characters (as well as the wider group around them) so they become real people to the audience.

There’s a few speeches which are immaculately written and acted and everyone will be able to relate to one, or both, characters and feel their emotions.

There's some real thought-provoking and moving scenes here but also some absolutely whip-smart, one-line jokes.

It’s just a fantastic film that stands out from the increasingly showy cinema landscape around it.

An elegant film well-told, well-acted and well-crafted from an always immaculate actor now shining in the director's chair as well.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️