Cast: Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan
Directed by: Thomas McCarthy
Written by: Thomas McCarthy
Genre: Drama

“Mommy, where’s daddy?” young Abby asks as she crawls into bed with her mother. “He’s running,” she responds, still trying to cling to a last bit of shuteye before facing the day. Abby ponders this for a moment before needing further clarification, “From what?”

Thomas McCarthy’s third feature film marks his third triumph as a writer and director. The marriage of his words and visual style works in perfect harmony to convey a unique tone. From the opening moments of the film, when Abby, one of two young children of the Flaherty family, is tenderly awoken as the sunlight pours into her room, she opens the blinds and accidentally breaks a stained glass window ornament. “Shit,” this seven-year-old girl exclaims – the same sentiment she expresses when she spills orange juice over a picture that she draws that the kitchen table. Though this youngster doesn’t end up playing a huge part in overall story, her miscalculated disposition for a child of her age is a great preface to the misconceptions of appearance that lingers under the surface of this film.

Win Win follows Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), a family lawyer who struggles with the decision to inform his family of their dire financial circumstances. To avoid doing so, he takes on the guardianship of one of his aging clients suffering from dementia in order to receive supplemental income. He carries on as normal, coaching a high school wrestling team in the evenings, and keeps his new legal responsibility a secret. However, when his client’s fifteen year-old grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer) shows up on the doorstep looking for a place to stay, it becomes harder to control the situation. It turns out, though, that Kyle is an all-state wrestling champion, and just the thing Mike needs to turn his team, and life, around.

This is a rare breed of script that balances the expectations of traditional storytelling – you know, where things actually happen, people learn lessons, and are all better off in the end for it – without losing nuanced characters and arcs in the broad strokes of generic entertainment. For instance, the wife, Jackie (played winningly by Amy Ryan), is the type of supporting character that so often suffers the two-dimensional fate of serving a specific purpose to the film. McCarthy instead pays the character as much attention to detail as he does the main characters. She doesn’t exist merely to accentuate the main character’s obstacles; each event has as much of an emotional effect on her as it does any other character. Though it is only fleetingly on screen, when Jackie chooses to support or oppose Mike’s decisions or mistakes, she processes and internalizes the information before arriving at a conclusion. This small detail makes all the difference in the world when developing robust characters.

Thomas McCarty has a talent for full-bodied characters. Much like Walter, the professor, author, widower, and music lover in The Visitor, Mike is a parent and husband, a lawyer, a wrestling coach, and a friend. McCarthy is so in-tune with the multitude of hats that people wear. (This might be because McCarthy himself holds a number of jobs; in addition to writer and director, his acting career includes films like Meet the Parents, 2012, and Duplicity.) He is able to take character archetypes and imbue them with such life and fervidity. Bobby Cannavale doesn’t just play the comedic best friend, he is also a former wrestler, and divorcee with an obsession over his ex-wife’s new lover. Jeffrey Tambor isn’t only a legal associate of Mike’s, he is also Mike’s assistant coach who also [comically] struggles with the odd choices of his teenage son. This knack for in-depth characters can be traced all the way back to The Station Agent, and makes his films such a delight to watch and connect with.

In assembling his films, McCarthy has impeccable taste for casting. Paul Giamatti doesn’t necessarily deliver anything here that we haven’t seen before, however his comedic side is something that is a unique gem. This role really showcases all of his best talents. In its lighthearted moments, Giamatti is able to show his flawless comedic timing, and in its heavier moments he is able to display raw emotional energy. On either end of the strata he demonstrates his unique ability to internalize the characters he plays.

The greatest find of this film is that of Alex Shaffer, the first time actor who takes on the role of Kyle. Often performances of non-actors is a mixed bag, (as can be demonstrated in many of Gus Van Sant’s films), but in this case, Shaffer is able to deliver a wholly honest performance that even the best of actors couldn’t achieve. His inexperience frees him of the “process” that most actors go through in creating a character, and merely just live on screen. Shaffer brings a pragmatic authenticity to the character, even in moments of great intensity. It is selfish to say, but there is a part of me that doesn’t want to see Shaffer appear in another film for fear that it will pull back the curtain and ruin the illusion that he exists somewhere besides the frames of this film.

Win Win is in its own weight class without much competition to grapple with. It balances humor and touching drama, not unlike an R-rated live-action Pixar film, (not surprising considering McCarthy helped develop the story of Up). It is a film that has its feet so well planted, and has the moves to pin down audiences for a long time to come.

USA. 106 minutes. Rated R.

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