A high school wrestling coach and local attorney assumes responsibility for an elderly man in order to get paid by his estate. The old man's grandson shows up, and the kid turns out to be an excellent wrestler, which is what the down on his luck coach needs. The underhanded way that he went about becoming a caregiver for the elderly man becomes an issue. The heart of this movie is the relationships that develop between the boy and the coach and his family. They are at first skeptical of a teenager they don't know living with them, but in time a closeness develops. Paul Giamatti creates a likeable everyman, despite his character's flaws. This is a sports movie that doubles as a family drama, and is well worth seeing.

4.5/5

Paul Giamatti headlines writer/director Tom McCarthy's comedy drama centering on a beleaguered attorney and part-time wrestling coach who schemes to keep his practice from going under by acting as the legal caretaker of an elderly client. Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) thinks he has discovered the perfect loophole to keep his practice in business. But his brilliant plan hits an unexpected hitch when his client's troubled grandson shows up looking for a place to stay. With his home life in turmoil and both of his careers in jeopardy, Mike quickly realizes that he'll have to get creative in order to find a way out of his current predicament.

ok seriously, i am now a full on Paul Giamatti's Fan, i really like his choice of movies. well this is an indie movie, i really like indie movies. and it is a very good one. seeing it getting very good reviews i became quite curious to watch this movie and i saw it today and wow what a movie it was, truly a really touch heartwarming movie with a bit of humor and sports.

as i started watching this movie, i wasn't sure i gonna like it but it just grew on me and i started to like it very much. i must say this movie will stay with me for as long as i remember. one of the best movies of this year. it is not much slow paced movie as people think.

Screenplay is the best quality of this movie and i wish it gets a Nomination for it in Oscars really well written. superbly written actually. story is different and good about Mike who is a lawyer and a part time wrestling coach and has shown in a different way unlike any other cliched Hollywood lawyer figure. story is really different. good cinematography, good editing. nice score to it. Direction is very good too by the actor Tom McCarthy who directed The Visitor.

Starring Paul Giamatti who performed really well as always, Alex Shaffer as Kyle and Bobby Cannavale as Terry were good supporting cast. other actors are Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, Melanie Lynskey , Burt Young , Margo Martindale , David Thompson. good performances.

this is such an perfect movie with climax that gets really emotional but it has some comedy thrown here and there that really fits in. its heart touching heart warming movie. Win Win is a winner all the way, two thumbs up. Must Watch for Indie fans.

Definately one for Paul Giamatti fans. Great cast and enjoyable to watch. It does fall into a "You will learn something about life" genre that seems to be a growing trend since the release of films like Juno. This unfortunately causes the ending to be slightly patronising so you might feel like you've lost out somehow...

I still have plenty of movies left to see at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but I don’t know if any will leave me smiling as much as Tom McCarthy’s Win Win. The movie a gigantic ball of warmth filled with terrific performances, smart humor, and genuine emotions. Even a glaring narrative question doesn’t slow the film down because you’re too busy caring about the characters and their journey. Everything in Win Win is earned, from the laughs to the sentiment, and the payoff is tremendous.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a struggling attorney/high-school wrestling coach who has a family to support and not a lot of money to support them. When his client Leo (Burt Young), an elderly gentleman in the early stages of dementia, is about to become a ward of the state, Mike steps up and offers to be Leo’s guardian, but it’s not exactly out of the goodness of his heart as much as it’s the $1500 a month he’ll receive in return. Mike lies and says he’ll keep Leo in his house but then decides to put Leo in a nice nursing home. It’s a despicable, unethical act and the film could have easily fallen apart before it even started, but McCarthy handles the emotions so well and Giamatti gives such a compassionate performance, that you don’t turn against the character.

And before you can even start to be really disgusted with Mike, his little scam hits a snag. Showing up on Leo’s doorstep is Kyle (Alex Shaffer), Leo’s grandson. It’s a bit of a shock to find Kyle since no one has been able to get in touch with his mother/Leo’s daughter, Cindy (Melanie Lynskey). Mike and his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) decide to take in Kyle until they figure out his situation. It just so happens that Kyle is an incredible wrestler and it’s not long before he decides to join the team. While this coincidence pushes the suspension of disbelief, you buy into it because A) a character comments on the fantastic providence of the situation, and B) McCarthy and his cast do a fantastic job of selling the honest emotions and humor of the characters and their story.

Paul-Giamatti-Win-Win-movie-imageEveryone on screen, no matter the size of their role, does an amazing job. Giamatti feels like such an underdog and we’re always on his side. Watching him figure out how he was going to score a victory over a potential conflict had the audience cheering. Ryan is sublime as she effortlessly moves from being wary of Kyle to wanting to protect him and punch his irresponsible mother in the face. What’s more, Giamatti, Ryan, and the young actresses who play their kids feel like a real family. When their daughter curses early in the movie, it’s not a cheap laugh because it organically arises out of the family dynamic.

The supporting cast is also outstanding. Bobby Canavale, who plays Mike’s best friend Terry, almost walks away with the picture as he brings uncanny comic timing and a huge heart to his performance. And watching Canavale play off costar Jeffrey Tambor, who plays Mike’s fellow wrestling coach, is an absolute delight. Credit is also due to the breakthrough performance from Shaffer. Win Win is his first feature and based on his work here, I can see a big future ahead for him. He plays Kyle like a real teenager, and he exhibits such warmth and fragility that you instantly share Mike and Jackie’s desire to protect him.

After the home runs of The Station Agent and The Visitor, McCarthy has hit another one out of the park. It’s difficult to find genuine emotions and still get big laughs, but McCarthy makes it look easy. It also takes considerable talent to convey a somewhat obscure sport like Greco-Roman wrestling and make it compelling. But McCarthy, rather than take the easy route and make Kyle a baseball or basketball star, relishes the challenge and it makes the world feel more authentic as a result. This ability to tap into this realism was invaluable as I wasn’t really plagued with my question of why no one offers Leo, who is wealthy, private in-home nursing care. Obviously, if they did, then Leo could stay in his house and there would be no conflict. In a movie where you don’t care about the characters or the story, a narrative cheat like this can be death because it’s a symbol for the phoniness of the entire film. But with Win Win, you shrug and accept it because you want to see what will happen next.

McCarthy has crafted a beautiful movie that’s honest, doesn’t shy away from complex emotional situations, and always keeps your heart full with big laughs and characters worth caring about. There are feel-good movies, feel-great movies, and then there’s Win Win.

This is a fantastic movie! It is very true-to-life and believable. Paul Giamatti and Alex Shaffer were superb. Fair warning though, the F-word and S-word are fairly prevalent throughout the movie, so do not watch it with young kids or if you are not comfortable with strong language. Overall I would highly reccommend this to anyone wanting an inspiring story that will make you laugh and cry.

"Win Win" is a nice, gentle drama; and I needed that on this particular movie night. It isn't loud, it isn't insulting, and it's actually pretty good at what it does. I suppose I was drawn to it by its cast, but I got out of it much more than just a few performances. I actually invested quite a bit into it. Basically, it takes a perfectly normal story full of perfectly normal people, and engages us through both sympathy and the performances alone. There is a lot that I liked here; enough to make the film a winner. It isn't great, but it's better told than most dramas I've seen this year, and for that, I think it deserves an audience.

The film is about a sport, and that sport is wrestling. I'm not big into sports in general, although when a film about them is well-made, and it had better be for me to enjoy it, I warm up to it pretty easily. Such examples include "Rocky" and "The Wrestler"; and un-examples include "The Blind Side", AKA one of the most overrated "Best Picture Nominations" ever to exist, and pretty much all the "Rocky" sequels. However, "Win Win" has plenty going for it; one of those things its attitude alone, which is a better, more positive one than most PG/PG-13 films out on the market today. I bring the ol' ratings up because this film is rated R, and while I'm at it, I might as well assure parents that this film is, by no means, inappropriate to show to anyone over at least eleven or twelve. It's entertaining and well-written, with enough charm to help me forgive it of its little imperfections. I wouldn't call it innocent, but it doesn't earn its R-rating; which all-together proves once again that the MPAA cannot be trusted when it comes to deciding who gets to see what.

Back to the film, the story revolves around attorney Mike (Paul Giamatti) who is trying so desperately to support his wife (Amy Ryan) and kids financially. To keep his personal-self on track, he's a coach for a local High School wrestling team; one that is terribly unsuccessful, but for Mike to believe in the mere possibility of success is enough.

However, Mike is allowed a second chance at success for his team when troubled teen Kyle (Alex Shaffer) shows up on one of his business client's doorstep claiming to be the older man's grandson. As it turns out, Kyle once wrestled, but had some trouble and was kicked off the team. Now, he too is given another shot; and he becomes the star athlete of Mike's team. This makes both characters very happy; and soon, Mike's family, who takes Kyle in, begins to take a liking to the young man as well. However, Kyle's even-more-troubled junkie mother could be waiting just around the corner, and when she finally comes into the film's narrative, things get complicated.

But how could a film NOT be complicated? This is still a Hollywood film, right? Or at least I believe it is. Of course, it's not the highest budget of high budget films, but it has a good cast, and that's enough for me to believe that it was made by filmmakers with semi-large wallets. The writer and director was Tom McCarthy, who also wrote and directed "The Station Agent" as well as "The Visitor". His films have been praised, and you know what; they deserve it. This is his third feature as a writer-and-director (he co-wrote the Pixar masterpiece "Up", believe it or not), and it's a surprisingly good third film. It's easy to recommend; not a "must-see movie", per se, but I enjoyed watching it, and the cast really makes it work. Giamatti brings his usual humor to the table, while Alex Shaffer impresses as a new-comer, mostly chosen for his wrestling over his acting; making it even more impressive that he actually works in his role.

Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Cannavale also co-star as fellow coaches of Giamatti's character, and they are both delightful actors in funny, equally delightful roles. The film isn't a performance piece centering on more than one performance, but I do believe that without the actors involved, it would not have been the same. I was never bored; never tired of the clichés that were admittedly present. The characters are likable, the tone is just right, and there's never anyting truly "annoying" when it comes to the flaws. This is a smart drama driven by story, characters, and yes, even drama. It's a rare film for sure. I didn't love it; but I didn't want to. To like a film such as this one might as well be enough. And if you go in, and happen to love it; then good for you, because I enjoyed myself too and probably as much as you did. I just find it as hard to love this film as I do to hate it. I mean, how can you hate a film that has a smile on its face pretty much throughout? The answer: you can't. I can't say that "Win Win" is incredibly deep, but at least it goes somewhere. And that was good enough for me.