|
Win Win
| Released |
20 May 2011 |
| Director |
Tom McCarthy |
Starring
|
Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer, Margo Martindale, David Thompson |
| Writer(s) |
Tom McCarthy |
Producer(s)
|
Tom McCarthy, Mary Jane Skalski, Michael London, Lisa Maria Falcone |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
106 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy, drama |
| Rating |
15A |
|
|
Solid Gold.
Every morning Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) pecks his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) on the cheek, ruffles the russet locks of his two little girls and grabbing his travel coffee mug, he leaves his modest family home in suburbia to drive the few blocks to work. A clanking boiler and a myriad of problems face him as he negotiates his way past his gum-chewing receptionist and settles down to pore over the financial difficulties which beset his practice. A disheartened attorney who moonlights as a high-school wrestling coach, Mike is struggling to make ends meet until a questionable business deal introduces him to a client's grandson and quickly, things start to look up. However just as life starts to look that little bit sweeter, the boy's flaky mother shows up fresh out of rehab, and threatens to derail everything.
Nobody can do 'moral dilemma' quite like Paul Giamatti can. Whether it's the craggy face with the expressive bulbous eyes or his ability to 'turn on the woebegone', Giamatti is a consummate pro. Here, opposite The Wire's Amy Ryan, he turns in another solid performance as Mike, third generation Irish family man, seeking to make ends meet in the dreary environs of a New Jersey town. With such a mundane commonplace beginning it is hard to imagine that in just 146 minutes, director Thomas McCarthy can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Win Win is such a little movie with a gigantic beating heart. No big budget action, no top-notch CGI-this is just good old acting at its very best. Everyone from the young troubled Kyle (Alex Shaffer) to his dementia-ridden granddad Leo (Burt Young) is committed to making Win Win an exemplary study into the machinations of everyday life in an everyday American town. Several lighthearted moments, courtesy of Mike's best buddy and Italian stallion Terry (Bobby Cannavale), helpfully punctuate the unfurling drama so that Win Win isn't weighted down by too much family turmoil. While some may bemoan the ending as a little bit too neat and perhaps unrealistically fortuitous, it could not really have been done any other way. Win Win is essentially a crowd pleaser and had McCarthy written a different ending, what would have been an endearing little low-budget movie would have turned into something unnervingly preachy.
- Louisa McElwee |
