Making Paul Giamatti the lead in a movie titled Win Win is a guarantee of at least double your recommended daily dose of irony. The man’s a great actor, we all know that - but from Private Parts to American Splendor to Cold Souls, he just doesn’t play winners. So it’s kind of comforting when Win Win’s very first scene involves Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) out jogging, only to be overtaken by a pair of far more sporty types before grinding to a halt with a “what the hell am I doing” expression. Whatever may come, we’re on safe ground.
And so it proves to be, as a picture quickly builds of Mike as a solid, decent, increasingly anxious family man with a struggling legal business - as symbolised by a noisy basement boiler he and office co-tenant Vigman (Jeffery Tambor) can’t afford to fix – and a sideline as the volunteer coach of the local high schools’ losing wrestling team. Things are so dire money-wise that when he discovers he can make $1500 a month by becoming an old clients’ legal guardian on the pretext of keeping him out of a nursing home, he does so… and then bundles the client Leo (Burt Young) off to a nursing home anyway.
This particular perfect crime starts to get complicated when 16 year-old Kyle (Alex Shaffer, who’s surprisingly convincing in his first acting role) turns up on the door of Leo’s now empty house. Turns out he’s the grandson no-one knew Leo had (the mother having vanished from her father’s life decades ago) and he’s got nowhere else to go. The good news is, he seems to be a decent kid. The better news is, he turns out to be an amazing wrestler. Mike’s found a new source of income and a star athlete; who would’ve guessed? Oh wait, the title pretty much gives it away.
Writer/director Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, and as an actor in everything from The Wire to Meet the Parents to 2012) has put together the kind of drama where you don’t really want any drama to take place. Everyone seems decent, no-one’s really doing anything wrong – Mike’s even going in and checking up on Leo so he clearly cares despite his scam – and you just hope things will work out. Can’t a working stiff and a struggling teen get a break?
Clearly not, because as anyone who’s ever seen a romantic comedy knows, secrets have a way of screwing you over. So once Kyle’s deadbeat mum (Melanie Lynskey) shows up fresh out of rehab all his new found stability is heading out the window. Not that this is still any kind of earth-shattering drama, mind you. Voices are raised and wrestling skills come in handy, but the reasonable, realistic tone established early on plays out even when the plot cranks up a notch.
If Paul Giamatti – who gives an excellent performance here as a thoroughly average guy – is the poster boy for try-hard schlubs, then Win Win is the dictionary definition of “indie film”. Everything is scaled-down and modest and understated, with the notable exception of Kyle’s wrestling ability (Shaffer was a successful high school wrestler before an accident ended his career). The focus here isn’t on high drama or big plot twists or hilarious antics, it’s on a bunch of well-drawn, realistic characters muddling through life. At that, it succeeds, even if it does make this the cinematic equivalent of a nice warm bath.
That said, it’s not damning with faint praise in the slightest to call this film “nice”. Sometimes you just want to spend some time with some likable, occasionally funny people as they live through a small scale story. And when you do, Win Win will be there.
- Three stars
Win Win opens in cinemas on Thursday, August 18.