A Real Pain is a comedy-drama written, directed, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, with Kieran Culkin and Will Sharpe. The film follows two New York cousins who are complete opposites as they travel to Poland to trace their family's roots. After its theatrical release on February 26, 2025, the feature film will be available in France on Disney+ starting November 28, 2025.
The film follows David (Jesse Eisenberg), an anxious and methodical man living in Manhattan, and his cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin), an extroverted and unpredictable man, whose relationship is a roller coaster ride. Together, they travel to Poland to honor the memory of their late grandmother. This journey, filled with tension, laughter, and moments of truth, becomes a true quest for identity, where collective memory confronts personal wounds.
The film's origins date back to a trip Jesse Eisenberg took to Poland twenty years ago. While visiting the house where his aunt had lived before the Holocaust, he wondered, "If the war hadn't broken out, what kind of person would I have become?" This realization haunted him for years, leading him first to write a play, The Revisionist, before turning this reflection into a buddy movie tinged with memory and introspection.
However , A Real Pain is not simply a story about the duty to remember. The film poses a troubling question: What is real suffering? Does David, who leads a comfortable life, have a legitimate right to be tormented by visiting places of tragedy? Are his personal neuroses insignificant in the face of the wounds of the past?
Jesse Eisenberg explores the contradictions inherent in the transmission of memory. He juggles humor and emotion, illustrating how each person deals with the suffering inherited from the past in their own way. Far from a simple story about the duty to remember, A Real Pain questions how personal and collective history shapes our identity.
The film is also a satire on family dynamics. David, methodical and anxious, embodies a cautious approach to the world, while Benji, extroverted and unstable, constantly defies convention. Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin form a contrasting and electric duo, whose relationship, both tender and conflictual, is at the heart of the film. Their interactions reveal deep wounds beneath finely crafted and often hilarious dialogue.
While Jesse Eisenberg excels in his own role, it is Kieran Culkin who steals the show. From the moment he read the script, the actor felt a deep connection with Benji, to the point that he didn't hesitate for a second before accepting the role. Benji is a sunny, unpredictable, and deeply broken character who constantly oscillates between lightheartedness and pain. His casual demeanor hides a suffering that he struggles to manage, and Culkin conveys this complexity with remarkable accuracy, which earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Academy Awards.
David, overwhelmed by his cousin's personality, sums up this complex relationship perfectly in one sentence: "I love him and I hate him, I want to kill him, I want to be him, and I feel stupid around him." A statement that perfectly illustrates the ambivalence of family ties, between admiration and exasperation, love and rivalry.
Filmed on location in Poland, A Real Pain has a sober and realistic aesthetic. Some scenes were shot in the former Majdanek concentration camp, a bold choice that reinforces the gravity of the story. The crew treated this space with the utmost respect, and the emotion on set was so strong that some actors had to leave the set in tears.
Visually, Eisenberg favors close-ups to capture the characters' raw emotions and wide shots to illustrate the immensity of the historically significant locations. The soundtrack, composed largely of pieces by Frédéric Chopin, adds a touch of elegant distance that contrasts with the intensity of the dialogue.
Eisenberg's writing is one of the film's strengths. Every line of dialogue rings true, oscillating between absurdity and brutal sincerity. One of the film's key moments perfectly illustrates this dynamic: while Benji takes humorous photos in front of memorial statues, David finds his behavior inappropriate. But in the end, ironically, while all the other participants join Benji, it is David who finds himself excluded from the group photo, as if the weight of history prevented him from simply "being" in the present.
This tension between respect for memory and a more spontaneous approach is also noticeable in the exchanges between Benji and their tour guide. Exasperated by the enumeration of impersonal facts during a visit to a cemetery, Benji blurts out: "We're going from one tourist site to another tourist site, we're not meeting any Poles." His remark highlights the paradox of a trip that is supposed to reconnect with history but remains disconnected from the present. Later, the guide confesses to him: "In five years of asking at the end of each tour what I could improve, this is the first time I've had constructive feedback." The film thus poses a central question: how can we confront history while living it to the fullest?
The film avoids pathos by approaching memory and grief with apparent lightness, without ever minimizing their importance. A Real Pain reminds us that sometimes laughter is a form of resilience.
Those who appreciate subtle, well-written comedy-dramas will find this film both funny and touching, as well as intelligently constructed. If you liked films such as Liev Schreiber's The Lovely Bones or Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful, you may be drawn to this work for its balance between lightheartedness and depth.
On the other hand, those looking for a more linear and conventional narrative may be confused. A Real Pain is not content with a classic coming-of-age journey: it is primarily interested in the complexity of human relationships and how we carry our heritage.
With A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg has created a sensitive and brilliantly written film, where memory and humor coexist without ever canceling each other out. Kieran Culkin gives a solid performance, injecting indomitable energy into the story. Between moments of grace and explosive tension, the film leaves a lasting impression.
A Real Pain
Film | 2025
On Disney+ November 28, 2025
Comedy drama | Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes
By Jesse Eisenberg | Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe
Nationality: United States
To go further, check out our selection of new Disney+ releases for November, our guide to streaming releases across all platforms, and today's selection of What to Watch Today on Streaming.
