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    • Kieran Culkin is captivating in invigorating comedy drama
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    Kieran Culkin is captivating in invigorating comedy drama

    Umito Posted on

    Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs and stars in this story of two cousins ​​on an emotional journey through their family history.

    Adam Graham
    | Detroit News Movie Review

    Two cousins ​​take a trip together to Poland to honor their late grandmother in “A Real Pain,” a sharp, intelligent and intentionally prickly study of a very particular personality type.

    Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed the comic book drama, plays David Kaplan, an uptight and neurotic New Yorker in all the ways we’ve come to expect from Jesse Eisenberg on screen. Kieran Culkin is a firecracker as his cousin Benji, a nervous, charismatic presence who is funny, charming, direct and can turn on you in no time.

    Culkin, with his short-lived electricity, so embodies that unique blend of the exciting, the intoxicating and the deeply vulnerable that he needs to be part of the Oscar conversation, and his performance is the emotional center of “A Real Pain “.

    David and Benji grew up together but separated as adults, as David now has a wife and children in New York and Benji is stuck in one gear living in upstate New York. Benji chastises David for not being there as much as before by giving him light, passive-aggressive blows. But there is a real hurt there, which resurfaces as they spend time together.

    The two go on a group tour of Poland, as they visit the former home of their Holocaust survivor grandmother. It’s already a tense and emotionally charged setting, but Benji’s mix of impertinence and insecurity puts David constantly on edge, even more than he already is.

    The other members of their group, including tour guide James (Will Sharpe), divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey), and Rwandan refugee Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), are seduced by Benji’s magnetism. But they also see the flip side of his personality and how his emotional honesty can manifest in ugly or at least uncomfortable ways. He has no filter and people never really know how to react to him.

    Benji’s character does not receive a clinical diagnosis in the film, but he does exhibit symptoms of bipolar disorder. Culkin masterfully portrays this emotional time bomb, who constantly walks the tightrope of volatility and drags down others around him as well.

    There’s a very easy way to make this strange buddy movie a quintessentially Hollywood adventure and Eisenberg, directing his second film (after 2022’s “When You’re Done Saving the World”), never takes it. The nuance with which he writes the character and the emotional subtlety that Culkin brings to his performance require a deft balance and both parties achieve this commendably.

    “A Real Pain” is funny, sad and emotionally taxing. But it’s still relevant, because we’ve all known someone like Benji, someone who can light up the room with their personality, even if just beneath the surface it masks a broken heart.

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    “A real pain”

    GRADE: A-

    Rated R: for common language and some drug use

    Duration: 89 minutes

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