Australian Penthouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Win Win

Director: Thomas McCarthy
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale, Burt Young, Alex Shaffer
20th Century Fox

FOX Searchlight Pictures has a history of sniffing out and backing quality projects. With notable films over the years such as the Danny Boyle-directed Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours to Darren Aronofsky’s lcritically and commercially well-received Black Swan, its list of accolades speaks for itself.

Win Win is an attractive prospect on paper: an offbeat dramedy with the always-solid Paul Giamatti in the lead role. Unfortunately, the execution is less satisfying than its potential.

Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) is a lawyer who’s struggling to make ends meet. In order to stay afloat, Mike takes advantage of one of his clients, Leo Poplar (Young), to score an attractive monthly salary. Mike becomes the legal guardian for Leo, lying to the judge that this will keep the elderly man living in his home, but, instead, puts Leo in a retirement home while Mike banks the easy money.

Unfortunately for Mike, matters quickly complicate as Leo starts asking questions, Mike’s wife Jackie (Ryan) senses that something is not right and Leo’s grandson, Kyle (Shaffer), turns up unexpectedly looking to live with his grandfather. Mike’s already stressful existence is made a whole lot worse when Kyle ends up temporarily living with him and his struggling family.

Mike moonlights as a wrestling coach with Stephen Vigman (Tambor) for a team of losers. But when Mike and his best friend, Terry, Delfino (Cannavale) stumble across the dormant wrestling potential of Kyle, they both discover an outlet for their respective life stresses: Mike with his money woes and Terry with his divorce.

This all sounds like a solid foundation for an engaging dramedy plotline but, unfortunately, a lot of it falls short. First and foremost, Giamatti is often pushed to the straight-man benches in Win Win when he’s proven that he has comedic chops in the past (Shoot ‘Em Up and The Negotiator spring to mind).

Jeffrey Tambor of Arrested Development fame is underutilised, which means that the all-important comedy aspect of this particular dramedy is shared between the often emasculating issue resolution process of Jackie and the ex-wife-stalking antics of Terry.

This makes the laughs few and far between, leaving just the dramatic elements to carry the film forward. But these elements are rather formulaic as Mike’s expanding layercake of lies becomes predictable in an ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ kind of way. The main unpredictable dramatic element is the somewhat convenient yet strangely illogical ultimate resolution to Mike’s collection of lies.

Win Win doesn’t fall so far as to be a lose-lose experience, but it does fall flat in the dramatic and comedic elements that are crucial for any film in the dramedy genre to gain and, more importantly, maintain attention. The standout performance of the film, surprisingly, comes from newcomer Kyle Shaffer, who plays disinterested teenager to a T, has the most interesting storyline of the film and kicks arse as a wrestling prodigy. It’s a shame to see what works well as a premise not realised in the end result.

WIN WIN is in cinemas August 18

Review: Nathan Lawrence

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