A Real Pain is one of those films where not a great deal happens, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it's about, but it stays with you for days (indeed now a couple of weeks) after you've left the auditorium.
In a nutshell, two Jewish American cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) team up to travel to Poland, join a guided tour and visit the place where their late grandmother grew up, but end up finding out more about themselves and each other. Once bosom buddies, they've drifted apart - life inevitably driving a wedge between them - but are trying to reconnect as best they can.
It's an incongruous duo road movie of sorts, albeit with much greater depth, nuance and heart than staples of the genre might imply. Neither is it played purely for laughs - though it's frequently very funny (the statue posing scene in particular).
Eisenberg - also the writer and director - is excellent as the uptight, mildly neurotic David, but Culkin undoubtedly steals the show as the whirlwind/dynamo Benji. On first impressions charming, carefree and the life and soul of the party, he's unable to keep the mask on forever, inner troubles gnawing away at him to an extent that his cousin cannot comprehend, despite best efforts. Sometimes a shoulder to lean/cry on is all you can offer, but also all that is needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment