Sundance review: 'A Real Pain' is a warm-hearted family story, with Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg shining as odd-couple cousins visiting Poland

The short synopsis of “A Real Pain” — mismatched cousins touring their Jewish grandmother’s former home of Poland — is insufficient to capture the prickly humor and raw emotion that its stars, Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, serve up.

Eisenberg, who wrote and directed, plays David, a New Yorker who is leaving his comfortable life — wife, toddler son, job — for a week on a “heritage tour” of Poland with his cousin, Benjy (Culkin). They are taking this trip to honor their recently deceased grandmother, Dory, who left Poland ahead of the Nazis.

The cousins are a study in contrasts. David is neurotic, worriedly calling from the cab to JFK. David is laidback, chatting happily with the TSA agent and blithely mentioning the marijuana he bought for the trip. Under that charming facade, though, David has his own problems — which emerge as the trip progresses.

David and Benjy are on a tour with several American Jewish tourists (Jennifer Grey is the most recognizable one) and one Jewish convert (Kurt Egyiawan) — a survivor of the Rwandan genocide now living in Canada. Guided by an Oxford scholar (Will Sharpe), the group visits the remnants of Poland’s Jewish community, culminating in a visit to a concentration camp.

The focus of Eissenberg’s story is the conflicted relationship between the cousins. This opens up the film for two outstanding performances. Culkin’s performance dominates from start to finish, as Benjy veers from effusively excited to angry and morose. Eisenberg gives himself the quieter, more reactive role, and he’s brilliant doing it — though he also gives himself a monologue about midway through the movie that is raw and devastating.

“A Real Pain” asks of its characters, and of the audience, some tough questions about how comfortable our lives are, particularly in comparison to what some of our ancestors faced. The answers are funny and thought-provoking, and it’s good that Culkin and Eisenberg are such energized tour guides on this journey.

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‘A Real Pain’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably R for language and drug use. Running time: 89 minutes.

Screens again: Sunday, January 21, 9:30 a.m., Eccles Theatre, Park City; Tuesday, January 23, 9:30 p.m., Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City; Wednesday, January 24, 5:30 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Friday, January 26, 6 p.m., Megaplex Gateway 1/2/3, Salt Lake City. Also available online via the Sundance portal, Thursday-Sunday, January 25-28.