A Real Pain is a darkly-comedic and often affecting portrait of grief.

The movie was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who also stars as David, one of two cousins who meet up for a trip to Europe. Kieran Culkin (Benji) is the other half of the duo and the titular ‘real pain’.

Mild-mannered David and manic Benji were inseparable in childhood, but drifted apart as their differences became more apparent the older they got.

But after the death of their shared grandmother – a holocaust survivor and Polish immigrant – the cousins are thrust together once again as adults.

They decide to take a trip to Poland to see where she came from and to try and get a feel for what her life might have been. In the process, they find out about their own histories and wrestle with their shared grief – of their grandmother’s passing and of their relationship as cousins falling apart.

That is basically the sum of things in this small movie with big ideas.

In and out in under 90 minutes, A Real Pain is disarmingly effective at showing both definitions of its title. Culkin is excellent at playing the gregarious and chaotic character who is fun in small doses but soon becomes a pain to deal with. He also plays the genuine pain of his loss perfectly, particularly in the scenes where he cannot help but let his emotions overflow. It is no surprise that he currently leads the betting odds for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Eisenberg is also good in his less flashy role, showing the repressed, compartmentalised version of grief as opposed to the volcanic. And although this is absolutely a ‘talky’ movie, there is plenty to recommend Eisenberg as a director too.

A Real Pain is occasionally hard to watch and you will likely only find it funny if you match its slightly darker outlook on life. But if this is the kind of movie you like, it is well worth the minor time commitment it asks.

Rated 13 for scenes of Drug Use, Language and Violence.

4/5.

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