With A Real Pain out now and continuing to garner critical acclaim and Oscar buzz, star Kieran Culkin has his own thoughts about the film’s ending just as audiences do.
Right before it was released this weekend, the Searchlight Pictures film screened at the 2024 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where Culkin was also on hand to be presented with the festival’s Virtuoso Award.
Directed and written by Eisenberg, the film also stars Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes.
What is ‘A Real Pain’ about?
The film follows “mismatched cousins” David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) as they “reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.”
“To me, I read it, connected with the character, and just wanted to play him,” said Culkin to the audience during a Q&A following the film’s Gala Screening at the festival when asked about Eisenberg’s script. “I understood this dynamic right away, and I just wanted to get on there and play. But for Jesse, I think what he was trying to do or succeeded in doing is showing that these [are] characters who have their own pain. His character, David, has had anxiety and issues with depression. Benji probably has a large list of issues he hasn’t figured out. He’s the kind of guy who hasn’t figured it out, but he’s basically trying to say that these guys have this pain.”
Benji and David are complete opposites, and while it seems David has his life together more, he envies Benji’s carefree nature and how he can light up the room. He loves Benji but also doesn’t understand his actions and how his mental health has been impacted since their grandmother’s death.
The inspiration behind the tour depicted in the film
The tour that David and Benji go on in the film was actually inspired by an advertisement for a Holocaust tour that Eisenberg saw an ad for online.
“He [Jesse] was trying to figure out how to write the story,” Culkin explained. “And he saw an ad while he was writing this…an internet ad. It was like ‘Auschwitz Holocaust tour with lunch.’ And he was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s it. That’s the movie. And he put those characters in it. He felt like the backdrop of seeing this kind of trauma that was within the family…he was like, ‘Is this real pain and does that validate your own or are they both real?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t have an answer to the question,’ but it’s the question he put out there.”
How does ‘A Real Pain’ end and what does Kieran Culkin make of it?
After completing the tour and returning back home to the States, they are once again at the airport and David, seemingly in an effort to be there for Benji more than he has been recently, asks if he wants to stay at his house and hang out with his wife and daughter before heading back upstate.
Benji declines this and we see them hug, before Benji takes a seat and remains at the airport, similar to how he was already at the airport for a while at the beginning of the movie, long before their flight boarded.
Many people probably have the same question after watching the end of the film– is Benji OK and what happens to him?
Culkin said, “People have asked what happens with him after or is he going to be OK or something? And I sort of have my own thoughts about that, but I’ll keep that to myself.’ [laughs]. But Jesse said an interesting thing about it once– David leaves him at the airport and his idea…he was like, maybe this is what it is…the last shot is actually sort of what is going on in David’s mind because he doesn’t want him to leave the airport because he’s afraid of what might happen to him or where his life’s going. So he’s like to him…Benji…he only exists at the airport.”
Did Benji actually stay at the airport much longer at the end of the movie? Seems like this is up to your interpretation of the film.
A Real Pain is in theaters now.
