WIN WIN
US, 2011, 106 minutes, Colour.
Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer, Margo Martindale.
Directed by Thomas Mc Carthy.
You may have seen Thomas Mc Carthy’s two previous films, The Station Agent and The Visitor, both well worth seeing for their drama and their sense of humanity. These qualities are present in Win Win, but there is also more humour.
Paul Giamatti is a versatile actor and has a potentially lugubrious face (used to great advantage in Barney’s Version and Sideways). He gets plenty of opportunity to use it here. He is Mike, a family man with a sensible and loving wife (Amy Ryan), a lawyer with a partner (Jeffrey Tambor at his best), whose practice is in need of clients. Mike and his partner also coach junior wrestling in the town. His prospects and his debts don’t look good. He also has a good friend (Bobby Cannavale) who loves wrestling but is no good at it and who is preoccupied with his wife’s seeing another man.
Two complications arise. One of his clients, a wealthy man, Leo (Burt Young), is about to be declared incompetent to manage his affairs. Mike decides to take on the role of guardian and receive a large stipend but, after promising Leo that he does not have to be put in a home, Mike does place him into an institution. Then Leo’s grandson turns up and Mike and his wife feel that it is the right thing to take the boy, Kyle, into their home. Mike enrols him at school where Kyle makes friends and invites him to the wrestling club not realising that Kyle has been a junior champion. Things brighten up considerably until Kyle’s mother (Melanie Lynskey), in drug recovery, alienated from her father for many years but sensing inheritance money in his will, comes to take Kyle home.
And then the truth about Leo and the institution come out. The latter part of the film involves us in the moral and legal tangles and Mike’s trying to rehabilitate himself, with his wife’s clear-sighted support.
The young man who portrays Kyle, Alex Sheffer, had never acted before but, aged 17, won the New Jersey State wrestling title in 2010. He really doesn’t act. However, his straight, almost deadpan, delivery of his lines, actually creates his character very well. A straightforward young man, no pretentions, very direct in what he thinks and believes. His performance, balanced with that of Paul Giamatti, make for serious and humorous drama.
Mc Carthy’s films explore aspects of human nature, the better sides of human nature (even when there is a need to be honest about shortcomings and failures and the need for some change of heart and recompense) and, really, what it is to be a decent human being.
1. An interesting story? Entertaining? Thoughtful? The career of Thomas McCarthy?
2. The New Jersey settings, suburbia, homes, offices, school, the wrestling world, the courts? Old people’s home? The credible atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The title, referring to characters, situations? Losing?
4. Mike Flaherty’s story, Paul Giamatti’s screen presence and performance? Jogging, discovering his stress, his friendship with Terry? Terry helping him? His love for Jackie, the children? His working with Stephen Vigman, at the office, law, coaching in wrestling? The issue of the boiler, expenses, Shelly and her work as secretary, information? Frank as a client, the issue of the cat? Leo, his losing his memory, his hopes? The court case, the fifteen hundred dollars for the carer? Mike taking on the responsibility, lying to the court, not allowing Leo to live at home, taking him to the retirement village? Jackie’s reaction on hearing the news? His deceiving her?
5. Vig, the law, no income, wrestling coach, the poor students?
6. Terry, the friendship with Mike in the past, wrestling, his not being good? Jogging with Mike, blunt talk? Stalking his ex-wife, phone calls, resentment towards her new boyfriend? Jackie, loving wife, ordinary, with the girls, upset at Mike’s lies?
7. Kyle, his arrival, relationship with Leo, his mother – and Mike and Shelly’s inability to track her down? Mike discussing the issues with Kyle? Kyle staying, visiting Leo, watching television with him? Going to watch the wrestling to be occupied? His agreeing to do some wrestling, Terry, Vig and Mike amazed at his skills? Watching the video? Terry and his enthusiasm, Mike enrolling him in high school? Success, the decision that he could stay, ringing his mother but no answer? At home, bonding well with the girls, Jackie warming to him, afraid at first, his friendship with Stemler? The competition?
8. Kyle’s mother suddenly turning up, his reaction, not wanting to see her? Her attitude towards Leo, bad memories of the past? The twenty years absence? Mike talking with her? Jackie’s initial resentment, some sympathy? Her lawyer, the issue of the will, Leo cutting her out of the will, her anger at the discussions, her lawyer trying to control her? Mike happy with the success?
9. Kyle, his personality, age, experience, respectful, monosyllabic? His response to Leo, to Jackie, to the girls? His leaving, going to Leo’s house, everybody arriving at the house?
10. His mother, the documents and transcripts of Leo in the court, the fifteen hundred dollars? Her accusations against Mike, his reactions, the truth? Her lawyer? Jackie and her dismay at the truth, leaving him at Leo’s house, his apology and her acceptance? Kyle, his mother, staying at Stemler’s house?
11. Mike and his decision to be honest, losing his practice, the mother’s lawyer, the mother and the arrangement, wanting the fifteen hundred dollars? Her leaving? Kyle hugging his mother but staying with Mike and Jackie?
12. The final images of the happy family, Kyle, Stemler?
13. Mike working in the bar, happy, not having any stress? A win situation?
14. A humane film, the complexities of human nature, virtues and flaws?
