By: Ed Holden
Paul Giamatti is a struggling lawyer who rips off an old man and coerces his grandson into joining his wrestling team. Doesn’t sound fun does it? But this feather-light drama is wonderfully touching.
A warm-blooded character piece, Win Win is surprisingly multi-stranded, looping in family theatrics, sports drama and legal technicality with what is really a simple redemption story. Paul Giamatti's lawyer chooses the wrong path when he pockets the care costs of Burt Young 's 71-year-old Alzheimers sufferer. Will he make good? Will he be forgiven? Or will he be cast out?
Giamatti's unique ability to play glum and grouchy but ultimately good is what makes Win Win win, really. You can see the pressures of supporting a family and a business in his sagged shoulders and sunken eyeballs. We know, even when he screws up, that he's ultimately a good guy. He has brilliant scenes with Alex Shaffer: a genuine teenage wrestling phenomenon brought in to play Young's athletically gifted grandchild. He becomes the star of the school wrestling team that Giamatti coaches and the spark of action that Win Win needs.
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The arrival of the young talent and his grandfather's cash seems to be the solution to our man's problems. But of course the lie is untangled and he will face the music. Fortunately we have a cool sports storyline to follow in the meantime. Without the wrestling, there would be far too much of people driving around the bleak small town setting and talking about things.
It's funny too. The team, coached by Giamatti and a brilliantly down-in-the-mouth Jeffrey Tambor, really is hopeless. Perhaps the greatest joy of Win Win is in entering the unknown world of high-school wrestling and witnessing some truly horrendous bouts, contrasted excellently by the talent of Shaffer, whose lack of acting experience never shows.
Giamatti owns the cornerstone story moments and the highly charged scenes that lift it beyond a caper movie. But he's not the only one who makes Win Win feel brilliantly real. Amy Ryan is a great Mom character and the moral anchor that Giamatti can't escape. Melanie Lynskey is brilliantly fragile as Shaffer's drug-afflicted mother and a big bravo goes to the comic ensemble of the wrestling team.
In the hands of director Thomas McCarthy, who provided a wonderfully watchable and weird mix of characters in The Station Agent, it all grows on you and the laughs get louder. The branches of the plot are perhaps a little too neatly wrapped up by circumstance, particularly at the end. But the characters shine through so brilliantly that you really won't care. In fact, you'll enjoy the sense of a perfect (if a little too perfect) resolution.