Sounds like a predictable loss on paper — sports movie, troubled kid shows up smoking a cigarette, wholesome family takes him in, kid finds he’s athletic, starts to turn life around, conflict emerges, kid grows, conflict resolved.
Thankfully, we don’t see that worn formula again in Win Win, Thomas McCarthy’s amazingly versatile and authentic wrestling pic that isn’t just some Finding Forrester or Blind Side rehash (who would want either?), but a low-key work that is more emotionally complex and gratifying than Sandra Bullock running around with a Southern accent.
Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, a down-on-his- luck New Jersey lawyer who reluctantly also coaches the local high school wrestling team. Mike’s a good guy, a family man, but he’s in need of money and as a result takes on the legal guardianship of one of his elderly clients and the $1,500 commission check that goes with it. Instead of promising to keep the man in his house, Mike puts him in a home and pockets the cash.
Trouble materializes when Kyle (Alex Shaffer), the man’s grandson, shows up, sent to live with his grandfather while his addict mother is in rehab. Unable to tell Kyle the truth, Mike and his in-the-dark wife (Amy Ryan) take Kyle in.
Not too surprisingly, Kyle turns out to be a star wrestler, and Mike’s terrible team quickly turns around behind his virtuoso talent. But just as it looks like Mike’s about to get away with a double win, Kyle’s mother shows up and jeopardizes everything.
While Win Win does have some of the characteristics of that plucky familial underdog sports movie (including a so-bad-it’s-good montage set to Bon Jovi), there’s much more moral drama than your average feel-good sports fare. Kyle isn’t Rudy and Mike certainly not Coach Boone, and the narrative of the wrestling team takes a back seat to the characters most of the film.
The cast that fills those characters is terrific, led by Giamatti with his trademark anxiety-ridden casualness and Ryan holding it all together as the mama bear. Bobby Cannavale is also outstanding as Mike’s loudmouth best friend, who at points seems to have taken almost too much of an interest in Kyle.
In the end, Win Win could have easily become a convoluted mess, with its series of unfortunate events building to a crescendo of an easy-out climax. But McCarthy can be trusted not to plunge a movie into Roll-Your-Eyes-ville.
Everything does click, but in a much more believable and complicated way than the standard.
So Win Win isn’t a first round KO or a Stone Cold stunner, but it is a charming, grind-it-out success. Just like Mike, you may think halfway through you’ve got it all figured out, only to find that business is about to pick up.
— Cameron Dunbar is a sophomore studying journalism. Send him an email at cd211209@ohiou.edu.
