Jesse Eisenberg’s ‘A Real Pain:’ Heritage Travel on the Big Screen
Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed, and costars in the 2024 film “A Real Pain”released in November by Searchlight Pictures.
For avid travelers, the movie feels like an homage to heritage travel, a niche travel genre growing in popularity. For those who have ever been on a shore excursion or city tour while traveling, it will evoke memories of small-group tours with sometimes prickly strangers.
What is the Storyline of “A Real Pain?”
“A Real Pain” tells the story of two once close Jewish cousins, David Kaplan (played by Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji Kaplan (played by Kieran Culkin), who embark on a small group heritage tour to honor the memory of their dead grandmother.
The cousins’ journey begins at JFK Airport in New York. It takes them to Warsaw (where their grandmother was born) on their way to various Holocaust sites, including the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland, where an estimated 80,000-110,000 people (predominantly Jews) were killed by the Nazis. The camp is now a historical site.
From the start, it’s apparent that the two men’s lives have veered in different directions, with little in common except for their shared heritage, which sets the stage for an odd-couple journey. David is straight-laced, married with a child, and tied to a career in tech; Jesse is less rooted, a perennial adolescent who hasn’t become an adult.
Moreover, their personalities couldn’t be more different: David is quiet, anxious, compulsive, and shy, while Benji is outgoing, labile, unpredictable, and craves attention. Their complicated relationship plays out in full view of their fellow travelers.
The film deftly couples comedy with drama as it explores complicated themes of family relationships, grief and suffering, and the generational trauma of being Jewish. The movie’s ending is enigmatic, leaving plenty of room for interpretation and discussion afterward about what, if any, impact the trip will have on David, Benji, and their relationship.
“Holocaust humor is rare, but “A Real Pain” is a counterintuitive outlier: vivid, moving, funny and emotionally devastating,” writes AARP reviewer Thelma M. Adams.
The movie was nominated for four Golden Globe awards and three Critics Choice awards.
The Story Behind The Story
Jesse Eisenberg was inspired to write the script after a two week trip to Kranystaw, Poland with his real wife, Anna Strout.
The couple visited the tiny house where his aunt Doris had lived before the Holocaust displaced her entire family. The visit made Eisenberg wonder what his life would be like if the war had never happened.
After the trip, he wrote “The Revisionist,”a play about an American visiting his Polish cousin, a Holocaust survivor (portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave). The play ran off-Broadway in 2013. Twenty years later, he wrote the script for “A Real Pain.”
What is Heritage Travel?
Travelers are increasingly planning trips to help them connect with their ancestors and/or cultural heritage. Jewish ancestry trips are quite popular because many Jewish travelers may know very little about their ancestors who died during the Holocaust.
Heritage travel may take the form of multi-day heritage tours led by experts (like the one in the film), one-off forays to synagogues, churches and other historical or cultural sites and museums and monuments as part of a vacation, or efforts to trace a family’s ancestry.
All my Jewish friends, secular or religious, feel a draw to visit the ghettos where Jews once lived in European cities before they were expelled or to still existing synagogues where they prayed.
Season 2 of the popular TV series “The White Lotus” had a memorable scene when Dominic Di Grasso (portrayed by Michael Imperioli) searched for his Sicilian roots with his father and son.
Why is Heritage Travel Gaining Popularity?
The rise of online genealogy research sites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org and the power of search and social media have motivated many travelers to dig into their roots. In response, local tourism boards and commercial tour companies began promoting heritage tourism, promising travelers authentic experiences that would be personally meaningful.
Because these types of itineraries have become more accessible, many families and multigenerational families take heritage trips together.
- Kensington is one tour company that customizes heritage journeys through rigorous genealogical research.
- Another tour operator, Classic Journeys, designs trips based on travelers sending them their 23andMe, Ancestry.com, or other DNA test results.
- The Travel Leaders Network, comprised of over 7000 locations, identifies travel agents specializing in domestic and international heritage travel.
- For those who want to book their heritage tours independently, companies like ToursbyLocals offer a range of experiences, such as their Jewish Heritage Tours, by local guides in Krakow, Poland, and other customized genealogical tours.
- Context Travel also offers heritage tours in different European cities.
The New York Times recently ran a story with helpful tips on planning a family heritage trip.
Where and When To Stream A Real Pain
If you want to join this quirky virtual heritage tour as an armchair traveler, you can still catch “A Real Pain” in select theatres. Check your local movie listings on sites like Fandango and AMC Theaters.
First reported in Forbes, When To Stream announced that “A Royal Pain” will become available on demand on Tuesday, December 31, on several platforms, including AppleTV, Prime Video, and Hulu.
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