For anyone who hopes there is a special corner in hell for those who use the expression ‘win win’, this well-made family drama may be for you.
Though no one in the film actually uses that Dilbertism, Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), an attorney with a solo elder care practice in New Providence, New Jersey, comes across as a harried family man surrounded by ‘win win’: he has heard it and seen it work so often for others that he decides to give it a whirl.
The story’s central dramatic problem grazes in the hypothetical shady ethical area of ‘whatever the fuck it takes,’ which comes down to taking a flyer on a thing that seems like a great idea at the time and then dealing with the unseen consequences.
Life gets sticky. Director and writer Tom McCarthy thrives in its stickiness in his work here, as he did writing and directing The Visitor (2007) with Richard Jenkins and The Station Agent (2003) with Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, and Bobby Cannavale. Cannavale plays Mike’s best friend Terry Delfino in Win Win. McCarthy, an 'actors’ director' who can write and act, may be best known to viewers for his own acting work, memorably as Scott Templeton, an unethical newspaper reporter in the fifth and last season of the HBO series The Wire (2008)—a very sticky business.
Win Win begins with Giamatti's Mike jogging on a frosty morning—jogging at a doctor’s suggestion to reduce stress. His daughter Abby (Clare Foley) climbs into bed with her mother Jackie (Amy Ryan) and asks Jackie where daddy is.
‘He’s running,’ Jackie says.
‘From what?’ Abby asks.
Sharp kid: Abby watches her parents as a mirror, listening as though an electronic bug fine-tuned for tone. And she has a knack for finding exactly the right moment to play back the most telling—and least flattering—parts.
Abby plays a small but integral part among a convincing ensemble of actors that also includes Nina Arianda in a small role as Mike’s secretary Shelly. In a recent profile in The New Yorker (Backstage Chronicles: The Natural, Nov. 7, 2011), drama critic John Lahr compared Arianda’s stage presence to that of Meryl Streep. Here, she is more like Streep and Marisa Tomei tossed in a blender—not a bad blend.
Mike is not a bad guy. He has his law practice and he coaches high school wrestling with his officemate Stephen ‘Vig’ Vigman (Jeffrey Tambor). His problem is that business has been slow and he is strapped for cash.
One of Mike’s clients, Leo Poplar (Burt Young), is a comfortably-retired blue collar white ethnic with dementia and no family besides a daughter from whom he is estranged and has not seen for twenty years. Where’s the downside in taking a $1500-a-month maintenance fee as Leo’s guardian? Win-win, right?
There is a niggling detail in Mike telling the court that he will see to his client’s care in Leo’s own home, when actually he plans to put Leo in a nearby assisted living facility at Leo’s expense. But Oak Lawn is a nice place that will give Leo the round-the-clock care he needs, Leo easily can afford it, and he does not seem much to notice the difference.
Then it turns out that Leo has a grandson. Mike discovers Kyle Timmons (Alex Shaffer) waiting outside Leo’s empty house one morning. Kyle is no more a space alien than most teenage boys, he just grew up with a lot less earthly supervision. He has come from Ohio by himself by bus to visit his grandfather (and to get away from his mother). Mike and Jackie decide he can stay with them until he goes back home.
There’s a deft shot of Mike depositing his first guardianship check at a bank ATM, standing behind glass on which an image of Benjamin Franklin’s portrait on the $100 bill is reflected and superimposed on Mike’s smiling face. Mike calls Jackie to tell her to mail their health insurance premium, presumably held awaiting funds.
Mike’s and Ben’s smiles are win-win writ large.
And it turns out that Kyle can wrestle (Shaffer evidently is a wrestler). He is so good a wrestler, and so content to stay with Mike and Jackie near his grandfather, that Mike and Jackie let him stay and Mike enrolls him in school so he can wrestle on the team. That mantra again…
After wowing his coaches in his first match, Mike asks Kyle in practice to share what he did with his teammates. There’s no specific knowledge it turns out; there’s a philosophy: one must do ‘whatever the fuck it takes’ to stay in control and win.
The table is laid for Kyle’s hypothetical mother, Cindy (Melanie Lynskey), to materialize at Mike’s office in the flesh and represented by counsel (Margo Martindale), scenting her estranged father Leo’s money.
Theatrical trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci_I6n2j5Uw
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