A Real Pain (2024) — Entitlement to Sorrow

Succession was, for me, one of those shows that is so great you don’t just devour that, but go on to keep an eye out for the cast years after. It’s enough to see one of the main cast on the poster for me to get excited about a film, and as it happened, the premise of A Real Pain also appealed.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.

I took this particular photo from here, but credits for all the promo pics, obviously, Searchlight Pictures.

The film follows David and Benji, American cousins reeling from the death of their matriarchal Jewish grandmother, who decide to join a Jewish history tour through Poland (her birthplace) to honor her. It’s a fairly predictable set-up — there’s the straight-and-narrow Dave (Jesse Eisenberg), quiet, polite, loner, and then, there’s Benji (Kieran Culkin). Benji’s the life of the party. As Dave tells him in one particularly moving scene, it’s enough for Benji to walk into a room for everyone to light up. He’s charismatic, funny, and compassionate, but not all the time. He’s the sort who connects with and feels for you, but it costs. There’s always a cost to feeling and honoring your emotions, because you don’t get to pick and choose, not really.

That’s an issue between the two throughout the movie — Benji keeps admonishing his cousin — “You used to feel everything” he keeps telling him. Where Dave grew up, Benji remained a feeler, in some ways a kid, excitable but also ruled by his emotions entirely. I felt…