Cinefile

Paul Giamatti has been pigeonholed into the lovable loser role almost by popular demand. It's the rare exception where we don't mind an actor to show up, hit familiar notes and add depth to familiar screen material. In fact, I sometimes find myself sometimes searching Giamatti's DVD filmography for his more offbeat roles in past films like Donnie Brasco and Man On The Moon just for a change of scenery. Still, the Oscar-nominated thesp remains a solid bet for getting us more involved in films that on the surface should be dead in the water. Leave it to writer-director Tom McCarthy (The Visitor) to give Giamatti a bigger boat to steer this time: the sports drama.

In Win Win, Giamatti plays a struggling lawyer who doubles as a high school wrestling coach. From the opening chapters of the film, McCarthy carefully constructs a stagnate landscape around Giamatti's character Mike Flaherty. From the unobtrusive track road in the town forest to the inactive streets and sidewalk of Flaherty's neighborhood, everything seems to be...fine. For Flaherty, however, a tumultuous, sickening feeling of defeat is draining his insides (even so-far as forcing him to collapse amidst a morning run). The unique thing about Win Win, is that the problems that Flaherty is facing (middle age, finance trouble, career slump) aren't blown out of heavenly proportion. Like a lot of people, Flaherty is just freaking out about not having that cushion of comfort in life; a padding that would not involve picking up a second job or readjusting your workflow or giving up any beloved hobbies, albeit coaching an unimpressive high school wrestling team.

But like most characters in the cinema, Flaherty worsens his dilemma exponentially. Upon closing a domestic housing case for his elderly client Leo Poplar (Burt Young from Rocky), Flaherty signs on as Leo's legal guardian in an effort to nab those monthly caretaker paychecks. It's not a noble act but Win Win hardly dwells on the nastiness of this scheme because it quickly readjusts its sights on bigger issues: Leo's unkept and unruly family. The first relative to enter Flaherty's life is Kyle, Leo's grandson (Alex Shaffer). Kyle smokes, has bleached hair and gets arrested during his first week in town. Still, Kyle manages to be a jackpot of inspiration for Flaherty. It turns out Kyle was an ex-champion wrestler at his old high school and seeing that Flaherty's team is on a losing streak from hell, Kyle's addition to the team couldn't be more stirring for everyone involved. Shaffer does some nice work as the troubled Kyle. Rather than lying on routine theatrics of rebelliousness, Shaffer plays Kyle as a believably sad teen roughneck. He is sweet, quiet and possesses an unusual ear for listening to the people around him. The other of Leo's relatives to eventually crash the scene is Kyle's selfish and bipolar mother Cindy (Melanie Lynskey). Fresh out of rehab, Cindy has her eyes set on cashing in on Leo's guardianship paychecks and well, you can see how this might mess up Flaherty's operation.

For Giamatti, Win Win presents a domestic dynamic that is absent from his lone-sad-man vehicles (Sideways, Lady In The Water, etc.). In his wife Jackie (The Wire's Amy Ryan), Flaherty has a real match: Jackie is loving, appropriately passionate and acts as a moral gradient against his backdoor scheme. Giamatti and Ryan are real good here and they should be--they're two of the best working character actors today. Kudos to McCarthy for not solely sticking to the sports story arc here, even though there's that all-important final wrestling match in the third act. The matches themselves are fun to watch and don't include any slow motion shots (whew). The lesson learned by the end of Win Win isn't revolutionary or Earth-shattering. But sometimes simplicity in cinematic themes can be just the right remedy for the worried soul.