Win Win (2011)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Shlumpy lawyer and unsuccessful volunteer wrestling coach commits a seemingly victimless fraud, hijinx ensue.

Paul Giamatti is the A. Bartlett Giamatti of shlumpy losers.

[Vic Sage]

saw it on the plane to san diego last month. liked it well enough.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

(vague spoilers below)













***



Pretty much the same. It wasn't as good as The Station Agent despite its somewhat similar themes, and I thought, plotwise, was a little too neat and tidy. I mean, of course the kid who drops in happens to be a championship-level high school wrestler.

[Frayed Knot]

Tom McCarthy (writer/director of this, 'Station Agent, 'The Visitor') does seem to have an affinity for plots involving seemingly incompatible strangers getting thrown together via somewhat odd circumstances.

Saw it last week and give it a solid 3.5

[Guest themetfairy]

Good but not great, but nonetheless enjoyable.

Definitely worth a rental.

[Edgy MD]

The fates were closing on Shliamatti so slowly yet assuredly, my wife spent most of this film afraid would end up whinily and futilely crawling out a motel window in the end, a la William H. Macy in Fargo. I thought the best thing was the tone-lessness of the teenaged boy. Why does Hollywood not know that adolescent boys talk like robots. It's initially chilling when you actually meet one because Hollywood doesn't tell you they're like that. They are!

In my world, a lot of filmmakers would be doing what McCarthy does --- taking people insulated in their cocoons forcing them into each other's lives, and watching them trying to find a way to reconcile that. It's what societies are made of. Increasingly, families are also. Also interesting that he sets his films in the cocoon-intensive world that is much of suburban New Jersey.

That said, McCarthy seems to have wrapped this one up a little more sloppily than in The Station Agent or The Visitor. A few elements --- the boiler, the slap to the side of the head --- are like guns hanging on the wall that refuse to go off by act three. Bobby Carnavale's character, while apparently based on McCarthy's co-writer, seems tacked on to add color. What does that guy do? He has a nice condo, a nice house for his ex, nice clothes and haircut, and all he does is sit around feeling sorry for himself while his bestbuddy is in quicksand. They also introduce him during that fake heart attack scene that would have been more effective had they established his character earlier.

I'm thinking maybe the trappings of success are helping him connect the dots in ways that used to be handled by writing and directing. His other two films featured star turns by career supporting/character actors. This one featured a character actor in Giamatti who had long since turned in his career-turning role in Sideways, establishing him as a viable leading man. Jeffrey Tambor, at 65-ish, seems a little long in the tooth to be taking up wrestling coaching to be connecting with a teen-aged song. Maybe he got tacked in there, under the premise that the film needed another name, and so the Carnavale character lost 30% of his role.

Which, while disappointing, doesn't drain my resevoir of good will. Go McCarthy!

Part of the film, by the way, appears to have been filmed in my hometown of Rockville Centre, so it's got that going for it. #winwinning!