Win Win

Actor-turned-director Tom McCarthy has put together a fine third feature in Win Win. All of his films tend to have compact stories that are small in scope but feature a very focused lens on the lives of their characters.

One might say that Win Win is perhaps his most conventional dramedy, as it features a normal suburban family with normal suburban problems. Paul Giamatti is "Mike Flaherty" an attorney with a small practice who's also a high school wrestling coach. He's not perfect, but he's doing the best he can. He and his wife "Jackie" (the always wonderful Amy Ryan) are busy raising two kids and leading their quiet life. But when Mike gives into temptation to become the guardian of one his elderly clients (for the $1,500 a month commission) things get to be a little more complicated. The client's grandson, a troubled 16-year-old kid named "Kyle" (Alex Shaffer) comes to stay with his grandfather while his mother goes through her drug treatment. Since his grandfather is living in a retirement home, Kyle ends up staying with Mike and Jackie, who feel compelled to help the kid out.

The film is funny and sweet and paints a really true-to-life portrait of its characters. No one is purely good or purely bad, they're all just human. They make mistakes, whether large or small, and they try to make up for them. In that way, the film will strike a nice honest chord with most of its audience.

Paul Giamatti is great in this, giving a much lower key performance than some of his previous works like American Splendor, Sideways, and even "John Adams." He falls into the suburban dad character very well and wears the character's skin rather nicely. Amy Ryan is always a joy to see on-screen, but I was a bit disappointed that her character was a little one-dimensional, depicting her primarily as a stay at home housewife and mother. Bobby Cannavale and Jeffrey Tambor are fun to watch as well, but serve generally to provide comedic relief (which they do in abundance) and their characters aren't nearly as well painted as Mike or Kyle.

Alex Shaffer, in his very first role, holds his own among some heavyweight actors. I thought some of the emotional scenes were a bit rough for him, but if he decides to continue his acting, more experience will only help to mature his instincts and abilities. Now, outside those heavily emotional scenes, Shaffer is great. His sort of deadpan, monotone delivery works very well for the character.

Kudos go out to Thomas McCarthy's directorial style and talent. He's put together three solid films, all of them equally enjoyable and smart. With Win Win, he's proved he can move past the "loner" archetype of his previous films and move into something more family oriented and encompassing of more characters (although when I think about it The Station Agent had that type of familial quality to it in the friends that Finbar meets). Either way, McCarthy is batting 1.000 in my book and has yet to have a misstep.

When the film releases on March 18th, I'd highly recommend people go and check it out. It's a very sweet and very funny film that deserves the large audience it hopefully will get.

Like enduring friendships, "Win Win" grows and deepens as it unfolds. The characters become more dear, the laughs get louder and the plot thickens.

Writer, director Thomas McCarthy (who also wrote and directed one of my all time favorite movies, "The Station Agent") has created a group of characters as strange and wonderful as real people, but with better lines. Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan are perfect. New-comer Alex Shaffer as a troubled teen wrestler creates a whole new kind of cool. Bobby Cannavale (also from "The Station Agent) sparkles in every scene.

If you want to see writing, directing and acting at it's best go see "Win Win." You'll win too.

The story-line of Win Win brings difficult and realistic moral issues before us, which engage our interest and challenge our sympathies. But the film is not a ponderous work of moral theory, fortunately. Instead, it has many humorous moments which keep the tone quite light, even as the film raises some darker problems.

The first dilemma concerns the subterfuge that lawyer Mike Flaherty (Paul Giametti) employs to win the maintenance award for looking after his elderly client Leo who suffers from Alzheimers disease. The dilemma is not so much his (he needs the money too badly and he has a family to provide for), as ours - should we sympathise or not? Mike is a lawyer, yet he deceives the court and thus breaks the law. Yet, at the same time, Leo does not really lose out because the home that Mike puts him in is very comfortable. In a way, Mike's deceit is a win-win solution that solves Mike's financial problems and also provides proper care for Leo. But surely deceit cannot be condoned? Or can it? While we are still dealing with that issue, an entirely different one looms up and takes over the story. Leo's grand-son arrives, looking for his grand-father, Leo, who is now in the care home. Not only does this plot development add a lot of tension (because Mike's deceit is in danger of being exposed), it also adds further complications on the moral front. The first is, should Mike tell Kyle the truth, or is it better to try and help Kyle personally while leaving him in the dark? Should we really expect Mike to confess, when the result will be disastrous for so many people and achieve very little, apart from establishing the truth about Leo's transfer to the care home? Once again, we are just beginning to settle one problem when another arrives to add further complications, this time in the shape of Kyle's mother, Leo's daughter, who has never shown any interest in her father, but now shows a mercenary interest in his state of dependency.

I really enjoyed this film. There is a lightness in the telling of the story, which makes the whole experience a pleasure, but it is a story with some difficult issues to set before us, issues such as the care of the elderly and the rights of birth-parents over foster-parents, which give us food for thought. Above all, however, the film is very well acted and the characters are brought to life very effectively, persuading us of the reality of the issues which it raises, but also coaxing us to temper our judgment of our fellow human beings. The film reminds us that life is rarely as clear-cut as our stern guilty-or-innocent judgments would require.

Many films (for better or worse) portray an idealized form of life/drama to combat the current economic malaise. "Win Win" is not that kind of film; instead choosing to revel in the struggles of day-to-day life and work through them.

For a basic plot summary, "Win Win" sees Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) struggling to make a living for himself and his family. His law practice is hemorrhaging funds, the bills are piling up at home, and his health is even failing due to the anxiety. After becoming personally involved with a client (Burt Young), Mike "inherits" a son (Alex Shaffer) who provides a spark for his high school wrestling team and lifts his spirits. That is, of course, until life intercedes once again.

In better times, this might be the kind of movie that people would stay away from due to the fact that is is so down-to-earth in its portrayal of life's struggles. In tough times, though, "Win Win" really resonates on a personal level. The struggles of life are not black-and-white, but full of shades of grey and ambiguity.

Also, while the film is well-acted as a general rule, Giamatti's performance is especially moving. Giammatti is one of the great character actors of our time and never fails to shine on the big screen. There's no one who can match his style of acting in terms of combining over-the-top physical/verbal acting with dramatic intensity.

About the only thing that prevents this movie from being a true classic is that the climax doesn't necessarily live up to the build-up. Don't worry, though, as the rich characters and believable circumstances are more than enough to provide compelling drama and entertainment.

Win Win is a charming delightful film about an ordinary family dealing with the struggles of everyday life. Writer/Director Tom McCarthy should be commended for his excellent work. Paul Giamatti – a true everyman actor – delivers a wonderful performance as a lawyer and wrestling coach struggling with the challenges of family and money in New Jersey. In the process of taking guardianship for an elderly client Giamatti's character, Mike Flaherty, becomes enmeshed in the old man's family when the old man's grandson shows up literally on his front doorstep. The teenager turns out to be an incredible wrestler, which is a great asset to Mike's awful wrestling team. And then things begin to get complicated. Giamatti specializes in bringing forth flawed characters that are delightfully human. This is a funny, sweet film that combines comedy and drama. Win Win also reminds us that family goes well beyond blood relatives; family is the constantly evolving circle of people that we love and care about. I literally walked out of theater just feeling much better than when I walked in. That has to be one of the best ways to judge any film.