"A Real Pain"... Or Is It?

A Fellow Grandchild of Holocaust Survivors Shares Thoughts On This Film

by Jess Hope Katz

From the ads I saw, it looked like this movie was going to be about the relationship between Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, two Jewish cousins from NYC. I wasn’t really sure what to expect beyond that. But I definitely got more than I bargained for.

Eiseberg and Culkin’s characters were off to Poland to take a tour and to see where their recently deceased grandma used to live. This idea appealed to me, because I have never seen the villages in Germany where my grandparents grew up, and I would like to. It is something that occurs to me quite often. However, unlike Eisenberg’s character, I can’t take a random week off from my job and responsibilities to take my cousin to Poland on a tour.

TO NOTE: I am not a movie critic. I am just speaking as a faith-based person.

The plot of the film is not that complicated. The boys’ grandma had recently passed away, so they wanted to see where she grew up in Poland. Eisenberg books them on a tour around Poland and to …