The strength of A Real Pain comes with the conflicting personalities showcased by the two leads, Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, who also directed the film.

The film sees their characters going to Poland to visit the home of their deceased grandmother and to get a sense of Jewish life before and during the Holocaust in that country via a tour group.

Culkin's Benji is the type with a personality all over the map. He's up and down at all times, going from incredibly charming to incredibly obnoxious at the drop of a hat.

We all know people like this.

We also know the character of David, played by Eisenberg. He's the serious one, the reserved one, the prepared one, and, often, the person suffering because of Benji's antics. He's the one having to apologize and deal with whatever messes might be made.

We all also know people like this.

Their interactions with each other and within the tour group make up the bulk of this film. Eisenberg is very economical and tight with the flow of this film, and things move at a brisk pace as he examines how these characters are suffering.

Eisenberg knows when to move on from a scene and knows when to let things linger for the appropriate emotional impact. He also knows how to get the most out of the Polish exteriors via some fantastic shots of local architecture and surroundings.

One scene that stood out to me was David and Benji's interaction with an older Polish gentleman and his son. Early in the film, Benji makes a point of the tour not having any interaction with real Polish people. When they do get to interact with Polish citizens, the film does so in a poignant but pragmatic fashion.

On a personal note, I have to say that I can relate to the character of David because I saw certain aspects of my personality on the screen. They were amplified even more since my name is also David.

While the film doesn't dwell on it or even make a point of it, multiple characters, especially Benji, call David "Dave". Now we don't know if David likes being called Dave, but this spoke loudly to me.

I hate being called Dave, especially by people who just assume I'm okay with being called an abbreviated version of my name.

The thing is, though, my name is David. It's not Dave. It's never been Dave, and it never will be Dave.

I say all this because Eisenberg's character comes across as the type that would probably hate being called Dave but doesn't want to rock the boat and make a big deal of addressing it.

He definitely wouldn't bother bringing it up with Benji because that would be a fool's errand.