Movies: A Real Pain

I went into watching A Real Pain a little unsure of what to expect. Overall, you have a 90 minute indie, dialogue heavy film with a variety of characters, mostly strangers, spending time together in a different country to their own, on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland. Yet this simple story had so much to give.

We dive into the dynamics of the main characters, cousins David and Benji, pretty quickly with very little exposition of their backgrounds and relationship, snippets coming through gradually as they journey abroad showing that despite being related and close to one another, you have two very different people. 

The film really gets going when David and Benji ingratiate themselves with the tour group, convening in the hotel lobby to give one another an introduction and explain their reasons for participating. All are different ages, a mix of genders, with a Rwandan turned Canadian national and a married couple among the group, all having a common, shared purpose for being there, but with substantial differences. We experience much of the tour with them, as they bond, mildly clash and explore, each character being given the opportunity, though briefly, to contrast against and enhance David and Benji's characters.

Soon enough, once the group are established and experiencing the tour, it becomes clear that the pain in question refers to that of others. Though this specifically surrounds inherited and ancestral pain of persecuted Jewish people during World War 2 and the holocaust, it explores David and Benji's legacy burdens and generational suffering.

The latter is particularly evident in the characters of Rwandan/Canadian Eloge and Northern English James. Eloge had fled Rwandan genocide and became a Jewish convert when he settled in Canada, whilst James confesses he isn't Jewish at all, but is drawn to their history and has immersed himself in the Jewish culture and experience.

The film explores and argues what it means to suffer, endure the pain of others and who is worthy of inherited pain. In the present day where those partaking in the tour are far removed from the suffering experienced during the holocaust, it is up to them to connect with the past and observe that suffering. Benji might be seen as the disrupter here, often challenging the others with a chip-on-his-shoulder approach, causing them to reflect and open their minds some more, but it also displays Benji's contradictions. For instance, riding in First Class comfort on a train stirs up Benji's first outburst, as he observes how as an experiential tour, it is an unjustifiable privilege when contrasted with the type of train journey those they are commemorating would have had whilst on their way to the most horrifying of destinations. However, it becomes apparent Benji's fits of anger are perhaps mere fleeting expressions of his own personal frustrations, when the next minute he is fare dodging and ends up hiding in First Class.

These awkward moments seem to be confronting our robotic approach to life, the distance from actual horror and pain, and how a tour like this indeed only allows for you to be an observer.

The purpose of David and Benji's journey is to pay tribute to their late grandmother. That suggests a more tortured reason than say that of Marcia, who we learn is recently divorced and perhaps trying to seek answers, or understand her own personal pain. In one of Benji's other outbursts, he takes umbrage with James, criticizing aspects of the tour curation, but also a tell tale sense of superiority in what could be considered his disgruntlement with James' non-Jewish heritage. James appreciates the history and wants to learn more, but can he ever really understand and be a part of a community he has no lineage to?

This incident also becomes a momentary grievance on Benji's list, when come dinnertime, David reveals Benji's plight to the rest of the group, which gives some context to his erraticism.

Benji and David never have major bust ups, but open up on several occasions, addressing the issues in their different lives. Whilst normally a character like David might look down upon Benji as a spoilt fuck up, he has deep concern and love for him, but doesn't understand why everything isn't just alright. How they can have almost the same life experience, the same adoring for their grandmother, but have taken different paths in life? More clarity is given when the cousins are requested to discuss their grandmother, the bouncing, rapid fire conversation between them revealing the reality of the relationship to the audience, but also to Benji. The impression is that Benji was stifled by his parents, but found commonality and held something unique with his loving grandmother, which David inadvertently dispels with some home truths. More pain ensues, but isn't that what we are exploring? David doesn't seem to be intentionally cruel here, but if uncomfortable confrontation is Benji's approach, straightforwardness is David's.

Though David does appear to hold guilt for having a more fulfilling life whilst Benji is very lost, and a secure job, family and obligations might bring a certain dullness to his life, freedom and spontaneity doesn't necessarily fulfil Benji's. It is telling when Benji expresses his delight at hanging around the airport, meeting the craziest of people, as he describes, suggesting he is waiting for someone to come along who will change his life for the better. Maybe this experience is, similarly to Marcia, a means of therapy and self exploration. His confrontational and uncomfortable interactions may be a catharsis of sorts, as he tends to ease back to calm very quickly, whilst reserving a crescendo of his pure emotion to be expelled after touring the death chambers.

In a present day setting, being so far removed from the atrocities of the holocaust, along with remnants, artefacts and memorials, the inherited pain acts very much as a reminder. Although the film doesn't just focus on pain as an aspect of remembering the past. The scenery plays a huge part in this film, from monuments, buildings, and the modernization of landscapes. Mixing these makes the setting a constant reminder not just of what the town represents, but that it is possible and acceptable to move forward. It neither wants you to forget its history, nor remain stuck in it.

A Real Pain is subtle and whilst having something to say, it does not demand much of you, offering plenty to be interpreted and analysed, but not insisting you do so. Instead, the film allows the audience to enjoy it as a moving story with depth and equally moving performances, offering a tour of charming Polish towns and landscapes to make it a touching film that will stay with you.