Review of Win Win (2011) by Danijel J — 20 Nov 2011

"Lot of things can get in the way when you're trying to do what's right" said Bob Dylan in one of his latest recordings, and that line can serve as a perfect description for this movie, or at least few of the characters in it. They have reached that certain point in their life (crossroads, if you like), where one starts to recapitulate and question his satisfaction with the journey taken so far. In that place the best of people can do the most selfish of things for what, and that is the paradox, is very hard to blame them. If this subject matter is handled without the unnecessary melodrama, what you have is something as believable and fresh as Win Win.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is an attorney specialized in working with the old, a suburban husband and the father of two. He also coaches local junior wrestling team and is not very good in that (though definitely better than his assistant, that's for sure). The finances haven't been so well recently but he doesn't want to let his wife know as that would represent one more letdown, more for him than for her. He sees his way out of problems when he takes the case of an elderly, slightly demented Paul (Burt Young), whose estate is pretty large but, since he hasn't seen his daughter for a long time, has no one to take care of him. Mike takes that duty on court, promising that he will be his guardian and look after him. That way, Paul will still be able to live in his own house, a wish he expressed to the judge. In spite of that, Mike throws the old man in a nursing home (a very well equipped one, to be honest) while continuing to receive money for guardianship. Soon after that, Paul's unknown grandson Kyle appears and changes the lives of everyone. Since he can't stay with Paul, Mike accepts him in his home out of remorse.

Kyle is your typical rebellious teen, with few words and a lot of hidden anger, but I liked the way McCarthy established the relation between him and the other male characters, especially Mike and Terry. When they look at him, they can see themselves in that age, with the difference that Kyle is a born winner and can easily achieve all of the dreams they had. He has that something that separates the real talents from the rest of us in any area. All he needs is that little helping hand we can all use in some point of our lives, and the question weather Mike will step up and lend it to him makes the core of the film. Kyle's role, on the other hand, is to bring some freshness in the boring existence of bunch of middle aged-defeated by life-but still struggling guys. A win win situation is sometimes quite easy to get to, isn't it?

It's safe to say that Paul Giamatti is one of the best and most underrated American actors. His Mike does some unappealing things and its Giamatti`s performance more than the script which allows us to understand and even sympathize with him. Legendary character actor Burt Young is also worth a mention, as well as Bobby Cannavale, whose charmingly insensitive Terry brigs most of the laughs.

Win Win is not a very original film, a clear fact to anyone who saw it. It is, however, flawless in its unoriginality; one of those indies where the director's sympathy for literally every single of his characters puts aside every eventual predictability. Tom McCarthy has written and directed it with great deal of humor, humanity and self irony, bringing a light approach to a serious subject matter. A great story he had in his hands allowed him to make a fine film by accepting many of the usual conventions rather than avoiding them. That way he created deeply human characters easy to relate to. If you, in certain point of your life, don't find your self in the shoes of some person from this film, you may consider your self to be genuinely happy.