Review: Win Win

I’ve long said that the ability to write characters who are fundamentally decent is a skill that often goes unheralded in Hollywood. Not to say that it’s easy to write characters who are tortured souls, people who fundamentally flawed in some way, with a degree of psychological realism. It’s just that, for all the Innaritu’s of the world, sometimes it’s nice to have someone like Tom McCarthy, someone who can draw characters that are fundamentally decent, not perfect, but human beings with all the positive and negative attributes that follows. McCarthy’s last film, The Visitor, told a warm and moving tale of a guy whose world is opened up by a chance meeting with some immigrants. It wasn’t a terribly original premise, fraught with the potential for cheap sentimentality as it is, but McCarthy (aided immeasurably by the fantastic Richard Jenkins) navigated that territory with a sure hand, making the situations feel believable and the characters (again) likeable. Now we have Win Win, a similar tale of ordinary people finding the common decency within them. And while it might not be as successful overall as The Visitor, it’s still got plenty of charms of its own.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a family man, with a wife (Amy Ryan) and two young children. He runs a law practice with Stephen (Jeffrey Tambor) and he’s struggling to make ends meet in these troubled economic times. He also moonlights as a wrestling coach for the local high school, though that too is not going very well. Dealing with those and other myriad anxieties, he decides to take advantage of an opportunity that presents itself to him, involving the care of one of his elderly clients (Burt Young), one that is ethically dubious at best and outright criminal at worst. This brings him into contact with the man’s teenage grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer), who’s arrived in town with no place to stay. As his family put him up in their house, Mike is surprised to discover that the kid is a phenomenal wrestler. Soon he, with the help of a bitter, recently divorced friend (Bobby Cannavale), has enrolled Kyle in school and has him wrestling for his team. Just as things start looking up for Mike, however, trouble arrives in the form of Kyle’s mother (Melanie Lynskey), an unwelcome presence in both Kyle and his grandfather’s life.

As stated previously, the defining characteristic of this film to me is how likeable the characters are. These are people attempting to do the best under difficult circumstances, whether economic or otherwise. Even when they stumble or act poorly, the film allows us to see their humanity at work, refusing (with one possible exception) to give in to the easy dichotomy of characters being only “good” or “bad.” All the actors acquit themselves to this task admirably. Giamatti brings his characteristic sad-sack persona, imbuing this family man with an inherent decency that stays with him through his trials and tribulations. Amy Ryan is a forceful presence as Mike’s strong-willed wife who wholeheartedly embraces the task of being a surrogate mother for Kyle. Bobby Cannavale gets bonus points for being stealing every scene he’s in. His bitter divorced character is hysterical, and he’s got an arc that is played just right, letting us know how much Kyle’s new presence is improving his life. Kyle himself is played by Alex Shaffer, a genuine wrestling champion who had never acted before. This gives his performance an unstudied quality that works well in the context of the film; Kyle seems like a normal kid, never like an actor going for “disillusioned teenager.” The scenes between him and Giamatti seem honest and real, and their relationship plays out nicely as Kyle quickly becomes the saving grace of Mike’s wrestling team.

The problems that I have with the film begin with the appearance of Kyle’s mother. Lynskey is fine in the role, but for me her entrance into the plot wasn’t handled particularly well. I understand that there’s a need for some sort of conflict, something to raise the dramatic stakes after things start to go so well for the Flahertys and Kyle. I just wishit was handled a bit more gracefully. For one thing, the mother’s motives seem to be inconsistent. The character is a recovering drug addict who sometimes seems to want Kyle to come home with her and sometimes seems only interested in the money that her father has in his will. Furthermore she comes off as less of a human being and more of a plot device, a notable flaw in a film that otherwise studiously avoids turning anyone into caricatures. Her inconsistent behavior also allows McCarthy to get at least one of his characters off the hook a little too easily. I’m a bit torn on this point, as the gentle quality of the film is one of its chief attributes, but it feels a bit unearned and softens the more realistic edges of the picture. Still, the closing shots do a bit to make up for that, illustrating in an understated fashion the (very realistic) sacrifices that these people have had to make for themselves and each other.

Win Win isn’t a film that will knock your socks off. It won’t show you some world you’ve never seen before or illuminate some previously little-contemplated aspect of the human experience. The film is about people, like you and me, doing what they can to help themselves and each other out in hard times. There aren’t too many films that attempt to do that, with most films being uncontent to focus on such small scale drama. However, McCarthy trusts in the inherent dramatic potential of even a modest storyline such as this, finding the nuances that make it feel real and handling them with maturity and grace. Don’t let the Fox Searchlight branding fool you; this isn’t an indie quirkfest in the vein of Juno. This is a simply entertaining story about modest people, living their lives the best way they know how. That’s no easy feat, but McCarthy makes it all feel effortless. Even with its flaws, it’s hard to find fault with a film this charming and pleasant.