Win Win - Cinema Review

'McCarthy is a master of subtle action vs reaction plot building. There's no grandstanding here, no melodramatics, no sudden and convenient changes of character'

Hardly a departure for writer/director Thomas McCarthy, Win Win has serious overtones of his previous films The Station Agent and The Visitor. Like his previous works this simple story, of a small town lawyer who finds himself becoming the guardian of a client's grandson, is warm-hearted with significant comedy undertones and oodles of realist-leaning underplay.

Like a typical McCarthy film, the dramatic triggers are all small events. Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a struggling lawyer. When his business threatens to go under he doesn't rob a bank or start dealing drugs or do one of several other inevitably-doomed and ill-advised actions; he simply bends the rules, albeit to near breaking point. McCarthy is a master at this sort of subtle action vs reaction plot building. There's no grandstanding here, no melodramatics, no sudden and convenient changes of character. When Mike's wife (a tremendous Amy Ryan) spots a mistake of his she doesn't pack her bags and walk out - that's not her character - she just tells him he's a fucking idiot.

Mike's idiocy hangs over the film like a waiting executioner, one of Win Win's few flaws. McCarthy telegraphs the inevitable reveal and flirtation with tragedy from early on and many will spend part of the narrative contemplating the time of its arrival. Luckily, the director fills the gaps with a cast of delicious characters who provide enlightening entertainment. Bobby Cannavale returns from The Station Agent as Mike's slightly smarmy best friend who sits outside his ex-wife's house for entertainment. He is the cross between the child Mike ends up looking after (Alex Shaffer) and the adults in the film, the fun-loving character who has lost his joy de vivre. First timer Shaffer is complex and quiet and is, most of the time, more than adequate in his role as suppressed wrestling protege. Giamatti, always a generous on-screen presence, is back to Sideways-best form, allowing Ryan, Cannavale and Jeffrey Tambor to steal scenes only to pull the significant ones right from under their feet.

Despite its predictable plot arc (something which The Visitor didn't have), Win Win proves once again that McCarthy has few equals when it comes to quiet, small-town American drama. His locations and themes (from the effects of recession, to adulthood vs kidulthood, to motherhood, to forgiveness and recovery) are all well realised and explored within an unobtrusive mantra which puts characters first. The humour of the script is muted but prevalent and McCarthy's dialogue feels both recognisable within his world and pleasantly character-specific. The film is another in a short line of great but little-seen productions from a director who deserves to find both a larger audience and a larger awards cabinet.

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'Tom McCarthy is the humanist that cinema needs. A comedy that can make people laugh without resorting to monkeys smoking cigarettes and frat-boy antics is truly something worth smiling about' - Never Mind Popular Film, 4/5