A Real Pain
Most notable for Kieran Culkin's performance, A Real Pain stars Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed) in and odd couple pairing as cousins visiting Poland after their grandmother's death hoping to reconnect with their Jewish heritage and feel closer to her one last time. Starting out with a Holocaust tour group the pair find themselves shown around Poland landmarks ranging from restaurants to a concentration camp with an eclectic group who include Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes, and Kurt Egyiawan, before moving off on their own to find their grandmother's home.
Easily the most interesting thing Eisenberg has done in over a decade, the film's title can be taken in several different ways including the real pain people, particularly Culkin's character of Benji, are carrying around with them or more simply to refer to Benji and his mood swings leading to an extreme, and often self-destructive and abrasive, personality that causes friction multiple times over the course of the film.
A Real Pain is a really solid film taking a pair of mismatched characters together on a journey that never devolves into easy jibes or jealousies between the characters. In another's hand Culkin's Benji could easily have been buffoonish or completely unlikable. The fact that his normally easy-going personality is so winning makes it easier for others to excuse his random outbursts but it also puts stress on the key relationship between the cousins which we learn has been estranged for months from more than just David putting his attention to his wife and child. And, you know what? It's actually a pretty good tour of Poland as well.
Watch the trailer- Title: A Real Pain
- IMDb: link
