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A REAL PAIN

What You Need To Know:

A REAL PAIN is a well-acted character study about two thirtysomething Jewish cousins from New York who are traveling on a Holocaust tour in Poland. Benji and David also plan on visiting their Holocaust surviving grandmother’s old house. Benji seems to have no direction, but he’s got lots of nervous energy. He also has wild mood swings where he’s up and then depressed, then suddenly rude, but sometimes insightful. David is a reserved, straight-laced family man with an internet advertising job. The tour visits the old Jewish quarter of Lublin and a German death camp only two miles outside the city.

A REAL PAIN is well acted. However, it has a strong humanist, godless worldview with abundant foul language. As Jews, neither Benji nor David are religious. Also, Benji sometimes spouts some politically correct, communist virtue signaling against rich people and against “corporate” neglect of the poor. Also, A REAL PAIN never gets beyond the somewhat shallow, godless psychobabble in its script. This character study never really gets to any moral or spiritual heart inside the two cousins, despite the love they sometimes show for none another.

Content:

(HH, B, PCPC, CoCo, Acap, LLL, V, S, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Humanist, Jewish perspective in character study about two thirtysomething Jewish cousins from New York on a Holocaust tour in Poland and to visit their Holocaust surviving grandmother’s old house (one cousin has constant nervous energy and wild mood swings but is described as having lots of “charm,” though he seems more annoying than charming and can be suddenly rude, but is sometimes insightful), the two cousins are not religious (especially the more straight-laced one), but other people on the tour are religious Jews, plus some politically correct, communist, anti-capitalist dialogue when the nervous cousin angrily complains about rich people creating “corporate travel” to benefit themselves and not letting poor people ride free, and he also complains about his cousin’s “corporate” job in advertising, and he says at another point that “money is like heroin for boring people,” and he also says “rich people are [blanking] idiots,” and then the other cousin uses an obscenity when saying something about rich jerks;

Foul Language:
At least 102 obscenities (including many “f” words), five strong profanities using the name of Jesus, one GD profanity, and three light profanities;

Violence:
Light violence such as tour group pretends to be Polish soldiers fighting German troops during World War II when they come upon a war memorial with statues of soldiers fighting, a visit to a German death camp for Jews and other political prisoners (including a visit to a gas chamber and a crematorium), it’s revealed that the nervous cousin had attempted suicide a few months ago when their grandmother died, and the nervous cousin is slapped by the other cousin in one tense scene between them;

Sex:
No sex scenes, just a reference to woman’s husband leaving her for another woman;

Nudity:
No nudity;

Alcohol Use:
Some alcohol use, and man gets drunk in one scene;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
Brief cigarette smoking and characters smoke marijuana in two scenes; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Two cousins hop a passenger train without buying tickets after they miss their train stop and must retrace their steps, and one of two cousins is suddenly rude at times, but he gives a tour some good advice about making his tour more personable and relatable.

More Detail:

A REAL PAIN is a well-acted character study about two thirtysomething Jewish cousins from New York who are traveling on a Holocaust tour in Poland. Before the tour’s last day, they plan to visit their late grandmother’s old house before she came to America after surviving the Holocaust.

One cousin, Benji, seems to have no job, but he’s got lots of nervous energy. He also has wild mood swings where he’s up and then depressed, then suddenly rude. Sometimes, Benji forgets his rude behavior later, but sometimes he remembers it and apologizes. Despite all that, at one point, Benji’s cousin, David, a family man with a boring job, describes Benji as having lots of “charm” that’s attractive to other people. However, in the movie, Benji comes across more as overly friendly and talkative but playful. Thus, he seems more annoying than charming, although sometimes he can be insightful. For example, in one scene, he gives the British tour guide some good advice, although he’s slightly annoying when he does it.

The two cousins clearly love one another despite the tension in their relationship that sometimes occurs, Also, they are not religious, especially David, the more reserved and straight-laced one. However, other people on the tour are religious Jews, including a black convert from Rwanda.

As these character relationships play out, the British tour guide takes them to the old Jewish quarter of Lublin and to a German death camp right outside the city. Eventually, when Benji storms out during a dinner, David reveals to the group he’s still upset and concerned because of a suicide attempt Benji pulled six months ago.

A REAL PAIN is well acted. Kieran Culkin, who plays Benji, has received much acclaim for his performance. However, the movie also has lots of strong gratuitous foul language, which takes away from Culkin’s performance and that of Writer/Director Jesse Eisenberg, who plays David. The foul language fits right in with the movie’s godless humanist worldview. Though the other people on the tour group are religious Jews, the movie itself adopts the secular humanist worldview of the two cousins. As such, A REAL PAIN appears to promote a brand of vague, godless psychobabble that never gets to the moral, spiritual nature or heart inside the two cousins. So, the movie just ends, with no real resolution, which is often the case with open-ended humanist art movies like A REAL PAIN.

Also, the nervous cousin, Benji, sometimes expresses empty, politically correct, communist, anti-capitalist sentiments against “rich people.” For example, while riding in the first-class compartment of a train, he angrily complains that they’re even riding first class because of what happened to Jews in Poland during the Holocaust. Jews were forced into train boxcars traveling to the death camps. Benji adds that rich people crate such things as first-class compartents to satisfy their own selfish “corporate travel” needs, with no care for the needs of “the poor.” Later, Benji complains, “Rich people are idiots” and “Money is like heroin for boring people.” This kind of shallow, communist virtue signaling fits right in with the godless, humanist psychobabble in A REAL PAIN. Benji’s cousin, David, recognizes that Benji’s spouting Marxist ideology, but, otherwise, the movie ignores David’s point and never develops it any further.


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