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Jesse Eisenberg talked about how the words "A Real Pain" were written over Benji's face at the beginning and end of the film. At first, it is implied that Benji is the real pain inflicted on his cousin and the tour group. In the end, Benji is revealed to be in pain, and whether it's real or valid doesn't matter.

There is no massive twist in the movie. Benji is in pain from the opening shot, and it spills out of him in ugly, uncontrollable ways. The huge "reveal" at the dinner table just confirms what the audience already knows, that there is something that hurts him when he's likable and cracking jokes, when he sees sadness in someone he just met, when he's screaming at his tour guide in the middle of the cemetery.

Jesse asks then: what does this pain mean, and is it important or grand or even valid when its shown with the backdrop of a much bigger tragedy? How could Benji's grandma survive the holocaust and build a life in America when Benji can't survive his own mind? Does his pain show a connection or a disregard for everything his family went through? What's the "right" way to deal with generational trauma; to be as strong as the people before you or mourn for the things they couldn't?

It doesn't matter though- Benji is in pain. It can be debated or undermined or overshadowed, but he is in pain. It can't be glamorized, and it can't be overlooked. It's there every time David looks at him, through every mood swing, with every person who likes him, and every person who hates him.

That's how mental illness is, to me, at the end of the day. It's unexceptional and unlikable and unbearable to everyone, least of all you. There's no huge breakdown where everything you're going through is revealed and everyone gains compassion and complete understanding, and you don't get some freebie for everyone you've hurt. There's no real resolution where everything gets better and you're separated from the person you were. Sometimes, there's no explanation or sign that what you're going through matters or is part of a bigger thing.

It's just a painful, lonely experience. We never learn what happened to Benji, why he is the way he is, or if there's even a reason. We don't know what he's thinking, we don't if he's getting better, we don't even know if he's going home at the end of the day. We are told his story purely through the people who love him and through the pain he causes others. We're told everything about him through his cousins sad eyes while he sleeps, his tour groups uncomfortable shifting when he lashes out, his grandmother slapping him in the face when he's directionless.

My favorite review says, "We are all tourists in each other's pain, even those we love." Our detached yet personal and clueless but almost intrusive perspective into Benji's pain almost mirrors the actual plot, where the characters are literally tourists in a world of pain that is completely unknown to them, that they have an unbreakable connection to.

What a realistic and personal and heartbreaking portrayal of pain and love and grief this movie was. It feels like reading someone's diary with half the pages torn out. Sometimes, love isn't enough to pull you out of the hole you're in, and you're stuck in an airport all alone. Sometimes, you give your love and its not enough, and you're thinking about your cousin while hugging your wife and child. Sometimes you can't help. Sometimes you have to do it alone.

There's no big finale, no magic fix or even an explanation. Everyone just keeps living, loving each other, and trying in spite of everything.

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what an exhilarating experience, somehow being able to relate deeply to david's anxiety in social situations with benji while also deeply empathising with benji himself because clearly he's going through some awful shit and that's what makes him the way he is and the movie captures the experience of experiencing pain and having to live with it and life still moves forward but you're with other people around you and how do you deal with the pain and you need to just move forward and deal with it but also it's so painful and you can't just be normal when so much has happened and it's just such an excruciatingly painful cycle of trying to empathise but simultaneously not make it everyone's problem because life goes on but there's so much pain and how do you just not let it become all-encompassing and consume you whole and my god this movie

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couldn’t get that stupid meme out of my head when i was in the theater

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just watched a real pain and was absolutely floored by it

the grief of losing someone dead, of losing someone alive, of losing someone who you used to know but now no longer feel the same with, of not being able to connect, of beinf able to connect too much and too strongly, the unexeptional grief, the wholly personal and lonely grief, the grief of being you and not liking it, the grief of wanting to be someone who you never could be like, the grief of generational trauma, the all encompassing grief of it all.

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kieran deservedly gets a lot of praise for a real pain but jesse eisenberg is surprisingly great in it too and visually it’s gorgeous like jesse did his big one with this

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Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin on the set of A Real Pain.

📸 via Assistant Director/Producer Anne-Sophie Puget's Instagram (@ansopuget)

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the way Benji starts and ends the movie sitting in a non-place; a transitional space aka the airport, waiting for something, would fool you that nothing really changed between point A and B...but the sunlight filling the waiting area... it makes ya wonder

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Someone on Twitter pointed this out

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kieran your swag too silly they’re gonna kill you

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do you see a real pain 2024. have you seen a real pain 2024. will you see a real pain 2024. when will you see a real pain 2024.

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if i had a nickel for every time i had a crush on a smart sarcastic character named kat, i'd have two nickels... which isn't a lot. but it's weird that it happened twice.

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I love watching a film for the first time and being able to notice little parallels and things in it, it’s like a rewarding little treasure hunt that makes me want to rewatch for the even more subtle connections

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MEGAN SURI in COMPANION

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COMPANION (2025) + trivia

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MEGAN SURI as kat in companion (2025)

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Harvey and Lukas got cozy in the photobooth at the Companion world premiere.

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SCREAM (2022) dir. Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin COMPANION (2025) dir. Drew Hancock