Win Win

Tom McCarthy has made two of my favorite films of the last decade, The Station Agent and The Visitor (the latter was my choice for top film of 2007), thus I had high hopes for his latest, Win Win. While I liked the film, it is far less stringent than his first two, more of a crowd-pleaser, and follows a more predictable course. It's still a very good film, though.

Win Win (I'm not sure what the title means, perhaps it refers to the phrase "win-win situation") is a tale of ethics and second chances, with a complex protagonist who always doesn't do the right thing, even when he thinks he is. The film's first two acts are straight out comedy, but the final third edges into a message-oriented conclusion that veers closely into standard melodrama.

In his usual sad-sack mode, Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, a one-man law practice who is on hard times (this rings very true--my best friend had a single law practice and ended up having to give it up and become a teacher due to low business volume--not all lawyers live in luxury). He has an elderly client (Burt Young) who is in the early stages of dementia. When Giamatti realizes there is a stiped of $1,500 dollars a month for being his guardian, he jumps at the chance, but instead of letting Young live at home, which he promises the court, he dumps him in a retirement village.

The real plot gets going when Young's grandson (Alex Shaffer), shows up, fleeing his drug-addicted mother in Ohio (the film is set in New Jersey, though the closing credits indicate it was mostly shot on Long Island). Giamatti and his wife, Amy Ryan, take the boy in reluctantly, but grow to like him, despite him being monosyllabic and mysterious. Giamatti especially bonds with him when he discovers he's a champion wrestler, as Giamatti is the wrestling coach for the local high school team.

The film has a nice, fuzzy heart-warming tone as this odd family forms. Shaffer, despite never having met his grandfather before, grows to enjoy visiting the old man, and Ryan develops a motherly protectiveness for the boy. Of course, things get twisted when the mother (Melanie Lynskey) shows up, and of course Giamatti's ethical slipperiness will be exposed. Anyone with a pulse will know these plot developments will occur, and while McCarthy handles them with care and intelligence, there's a certain inevitableness about them. McCarthy really likes his characters, and lets them off the hook whenever he can. Giamatti is very good as a man who cares about people but isn't above taking the easy way out--it made me think how I can rationalize certain situations. Ryan is also good, but underused. Two supporting players, Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Canavale, play Giamatti's friends, but are also underdeveloped.

As for Shaffer, I kind of struggled with his character. He's really a cypher through much of the film, intentionally, I imagine, so his acts of stalwartness, while uplifting, seem to come out of nowhere.

I don't want to be too hard on this film, though. It's one of the best I've seen in this short year, though talks of Oscar nominations seem premature and fanciful.

My grade for Win Win: B