Features
- Type: DVD
- Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Language(s): english, french
- Subtitle(s): english, spanish
Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti* stars as a lovable yet long-suffering lawyer and high-school wrestling coach who takes us on a brilliantly heartfelt journey through the game of life...where you can't lose 'em all. When Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) comes across a teenage runaway who also happens to be a be a champion wrestler, Mike?s luck turns around in spectacular fashion. But his win-win situation soon becomes more complicated than he ever imagined when the boy?s family affairs come into play. Co-starring Oscar nominee Amy Ryan* and directed by Oscar-Nominee Tom McCarthy**, this touching and funny comedy will leave you cheering. *Paul Giamatti, Supporting Actor, Cinderella Man, 2005; Amy Ryan, Supporting Actress, Gone Baby Gone, 2007. **Original Screenplay, Up, 2009 (Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter; Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy). Writer-director Tom McCarthy excels at tales about men who feel isolated from their surroundings. In Win Win, it's Kyle (Alex Shaffer, recalling the young Sean Penn), a teenager who enters the life of New Jersey attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti). Flaherty's journey begins when he represents Kyle's grandfather, Leo (Burt Young), who suffers from dementia. When Flaherty finds out about the substantial fee, he signs up as Leo's guardian, because he's been having trouble paying his bills. He and his wife, Jackie (Amy Ryan), meet Kyle when the kid shows up on his grandfather's doorstep. Kyle's mother (Melanie Lynskey) is in rehab and her boyfriend is abusive, so Kyle wants to live with Leo. Because Mike placed him in a retirement home--against the man's wishes--he agrees to host Kyle for a few weeks, during which Mike learns about his wrestling skills and invites him to join the high-school team he coaches with Stephen (Jeffrey Tambor). His best friend, Terry (Bobby Cannavale), offers to assist the duo to get his mind off his ex (the one plot line that doesn't work). When Kyle's mother shows up to collect her son and cash in on her father's situation, Mike risks losing everything he has gained. Win Win doesn't surprise as much as The Station Agent, which featured Cannavale, or cut as deep as The Visitor, but Giamatti and Ryan make for a believable suburban couple, doing their best to make ends meet in the face of an unsympathetic economy. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
