The title of Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is doing double duty, but only one of the meanings is perfectly clear – or rather, only one is not open to any interpretation. That’s the fact that its two main characters, David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), are cousins undergoing genuine emotional distress as they travel in their recently deceased grandmother’s home country of Poland, taking a tour that includes a concentration camp with other English-speaking Jewish tourists.

The other meaning of the title, though, is that one of them is a “real pain [in the neck, in the ass, finish that thought as you see fit].” The trouble is, it’s not clear whether that is Benji or David. On the surface, it would seem to be Benji, the one of the two who’s a free spirit, who has no filter, who is frequently making other people uncomfortable, particularly his cousin, with how little attention he pays to normal social boundaries. Then there’s also David, who’s living a much more sheltered life in that he’s a family man who rarely takes any risks. But it’s possible his interiority is as much of a buzz kill for Benji as Benji’s lack of inhibitions disrupts David.

This would be a tantalising uncertainty if the film did more with it. Eisenberg’s second feature as a writer-director is purposefully scaled down in its ambitions, despite outwardly having the bigger scope of having been shot on location in Poland. It’s the kind of film where expected big moments peter out into half-finished catharses, which, granted, is kind of what real life is like. Anyone who wants a jolt of the cinematic in their intimate character studies won’t find it here.

Eisenberg tips his hand, or at least the intentions of his misdirection, about whose shoes he wants us in by starting with his own character’s arrival to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, leaving frequent voicemails to Benji to ensure he’s not going to be late for the flight. People of a certain disposition will already be on notice with his sort of manic neurosis, but others will know a Benji in their lives, who can’t be relied on to do anything unless he’s checked on regularly. Benji does make the flight on time, though – in fact, he was at the airport hours before David, enthralled by all the weird people that scenario allows you to meet. Cementing further our picture of Benji, he’s procured David a yoghurt that has been steadily warming in his pocket for most of that time. David surreptitiously chucks it in a bin.

Their different personalities are further accentuated on arrival in Warsaw, where Benji picks up a brick of marijuana mailed to the hotel concierge, while David’s eyes bug out in horror. Naturally, David politely and nervously meets the other members of their tour group (who include a woman played by Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey), while Benji takes them aback with his instant oversharing, as well as verbal reactions to the others’ introductions when a silent nod would have sufficed. They can’t decide whether Benji is a delight or a menace, but quickly begin landing in the former camp.

Taking them on this tour is James (Will Sharpe), a Brit who knows Polish history inside and out but is conscious of the fact that he himself is not Jewish. Rounding out the crew is a retired American couple (Daniel Oreskes and Liz Sadovy) and a Rwandan national who emigrated to Canada and converted to Judaism (Kurt Egyiawan). Their collective experiences on this tour are generally unremarkable, but they do draw out deeply buried conflicts between David and Benji.

There’s the makings in A Real Pain for a cringe comedy with broad set pieces where Benji is getting them into trouble that isn’t easy to work their way out of. However, outside of an occasional harmless freakout – like when Benji talks about the irony of riding in first class on a Polish train, when trains once carried his people to the gas chamber – A Real Pain isn’t constructed that way. More to the point, it leaves a lot unsaid, which may be Eisenberg intentionally deviating from his own experience as an actor, an experience that has tended to be very verbal in nature.

However, Eisenberg’s touch is light almost to the point of seeming incurious. He’s putting forward the history of Jews in Poland for consideration, a theme that would certainly, under most circumstances, be out of sync with a cringe comedy. The director stops short of having a clear perspective on this history beyond the obvious one that it was terrible. If it seems like this should have been grist for the mill of this movie, the question then becomes, what mill? A Real Pain feels like too specific of a scenario not to really be about anything, and yet if you try to pin down what conclusions anyone reaches about their lives or the themes that the film glances against, you’ll be left holding an empty bag.

From moment to moment, the film is generally light and engaging, a showcase for two performers who are always on their game and always hold the screen. Culkin in particular has won deserved praise for the sort of creation he’s concocted in Benji, another role in a succession of roles he’s had recently – pun intended – that have confirmed his place among the most respected actors of his generation.

A Real Pain, though, feels like it needs a shove in some direction – any direction. Eisenberg seems to know what he does not want his film to be, but he doesn’t always grasp the alternative. Slices of life usually lack in conventional satisfactions, and that describes A Real Pain to a T. That means it’ll perfectly please the ideal audience Eisenberg envisions, and leave others scratching their heads and holding that empty bag.

 

A Real Pain is currently playing in cinemas.