IT'S OK, IT'S OK: a review of "Win Win"

“WIN WIN”
Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni
Written For The Screen and Directed by Tom McCarthy
** (two stars)

As I sat in my theater seat watching the end credit scroll of “Win Win,” the new film from Director Tom McCarthy, one elderly aisle mate passed by me and offered her initial reaction to me as she smiled, “Great movie, huh?” That comment was met with audible sounds of agreement by a younger couple who were also passing by me. I responded gently by offering my own take, an amiable, “It was OK.” As I eventually stood upright to leave the theater, another couple of elderly women walked past me on the theater steps and said to me, just as openly, “That was excellent, didn’t you think?” And again, just as amiably as before, I answered, “It was OK.” My response was greeted with a facial expression from one of the women that could only be described as “disbelief.” The three of us then engaged ourselves in a nice conversation about the film we had all experienced and then on our way out of the theater, the conversation transformed into a few more related subjects before we bid our farewells.

Now, I have to first say that I truly love moments like that. As I typically see films by myself, I do miss that opportunity to engage with someone immediately after seeing a movie, as I am usually only able to gather my thoughts and try to keep them at the forefront of my mind during the drive home anticipating the moment I can reunite with my computer so I can begin to compose a new review. I especially love it when I see a movie that has affected me in a positive manner so greatly that I just want to begin spreading the news. It was that very reaction I saw upon those few faces at the conclusion of “Win Win,” and yet, I did not have the same reaction for myself.

Dear readers, there is nothing bad or truly negative about “Win Win.” In fact, I have a feeling that that many of you, if you choose to see this film, will indeed be as positively affected as the patrons I spoke with. I will not discourage you from seeing it as it is a well written and directed film that offers fine performances from top to bottom with equal dollops of humor, drama, bittersweetness and honest stabs at depicting aspects of human nature. All of that being said, I felt it difficult to fully engage with the film as I just didn’t think that it went far enough to suit my sensibilities or even the furthest grasps of the story being presented in the first place. Essentially, “Win Win” is a smart crowd pleaser of a movie that was just a near miss for me.

Paul Giamatti stars as Mike Flaherty, a financially struggling New Jersey attorney desperately attempting to provide for his family, which includes the supportive and sharp Jackie (Amy Ryan) and two young daughters. Feeling so protective of his family and office secretary’s emotional security, Mike never fully divulges his increasingly dire monetary realities as he chooses to fix faulty plumbing, water heaters and cut down dead tress in the front yard himself rather than hire. The stress of holding himself together for the benefit of those he loves has led him into occasional and severe anxiety attacks.

At the New Providence High School, Mike volunteers as a wrestling coach along with Stephen (the eternally dour Jeffrey Tambor), an accountant with whom he shares office space. With the inadvertently ironic dubbing of “The Home Of Champions,” the perpetually losing team completely mirrors the slow downward spiral of Mike’s life, despite his best intentions.

One of Mike’s clients is wealthy Leo Poplar (Burt Young), now suffering the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s related dementia. Upon learning that Poplar’s legal guardian would earn $1500 per month, Mike announces in court that he would gladly appoint himself as legal guardian, solely to ensure that Poplar could still live within his own home. Yet, Mike sends Poplar to an assisted living facility and pockets the $1500 for himself, reasoning that the facility would take better care of the disoriented and volatile Leo Poplar and hey…desperate times…

One Sunday after attending church, Mike stops by Poplar’s home to discover a bleach blond haired teenager sitting upon his doorstep. The teenager is Poplar’s grandson Kyle Timmons (Alex Shaffer), who has run away from home, hoping to find solace away from his drug addicted Mother Cindy (Melanie Lynskey), now spending a stint in a rehab facility. Not wanting to leave this odd, reticent boy out on the streets, Mike and Jackie feel compelled to take Kyle into their own home and enroll him in school.

As Kyle observes the wrestling team, he asks Mike if he could spar with the other boys, a request which Mike allows and soon discovers that Kyle is a natural wrestling talent. Kyle joins the wrestling team and his excellent skills transforms the group into a winners. With Poplar in the assisted living facility, a winning high school wrestling team and an extra $1500 per month to work with, life for Mike seems to be leveling off and even ascending. That is until the intrusive hand of life’s consequences come knocking forcing Mike to face the realities of his actions and decisions.

At its best, “Win Win” is an ode to modern society morals, pathos, ethics and humanity while also serving as a film about a small collective of males trying to elicit their respective second chances in life and discover new resolves of what one character refers to as their “man strength.”

McCarty also injects into “Win Win” a relevant cultural commentary that has its cinematic finger on the pulse of American life in the 21st century just as much as Jason Reitman’s “Up In the Air” (2009) and David Fincher’s “The Social Network” (2010), while also exhibiting a light comedic touch. “Win Win” is about the serious sense of desperation that now permeates the middle class in regards to financial responsibilities and strains, which in turn can only tap into one’s deeper and primal fears of survival. The film also functions as a savvy “What Would You Do?” experience as Mike’s situation leads him to a personal and dangerous crossroads, allowing the audience to ask of themselves what choices would they have made if given the same or comparable circumstances.

All of the performances are strong in “Win Win” (although I wish that Amy Ryan’s role gave her a bit more to chomp on) and I must give special mention to Bobby Cannavale, who portrays Terry, Mike’s childhood friend, reeling from the pain of a recent divorce who finds new life in becoming an Assistant Coach for the wrestling team. And I must also give acclaim to David Thompson who portrays the gangly Stemler, Kyle’s wrestling teammate. Both Cannavale and Thompson give “Win Win” subtle and unexpected bursts of comedic energy and the sight of both actors made me perk upright with their presence.

Paul Giamatti gives an excellent performance and continues to find new ways of portraying and finding the individualistic souls of what is essentially the same character: the middle-aged sad sack. We can see how much he loves his family as much as we can see his regrets at choices not taken or dreams having fallen by the wayside. Even with his stint as a wrestling coach, he is partially living in the past glories of his youth as a scrappy teenaged wrestler and the future seemed so wide open. I could easily find empathy with this man who is only trying to live the life he has worked for and earned, especially in a world where all one has to do is turn on the television and see how the rich continue to attain mass fortunes while those in Mike’s position have to do more with less.

His relationship with Kyle is also filled with inherent ambiguity as we are meant to question what his exact intents with this troubled boy happen to be. Is he honestly discovering a love and responsibility for this young man or is he solely using the boy’s gifts as a wrestler to build up his own draining self-confidence?

All of this is very well and good and yet, I just felt so unsatisfied throughout much of this film and definitely by the film’s conclusion. This impression and reaction was especially surprising to me as McCarthy’s previous film was the powerfully humane film “The Visitor,” one of my Top Ten Favorite Films of 2008 and a film I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you seek out at your local video store if you have not seen this film.

For the uninitiated, “The Visitor” featured veteran character actor Richard Jenkins in a brilliant starring performance as a widowed and emotionally closed Connecticut College Economics professor who discovers a young couple from Syria and Senegal squatting in his New York apartment. The threesome forge a tentative relationship, which eventually bring the professor an invitation to join an outdoor drum circle. As their collective friendship builds, the professor is eventually forced to confront the very real world issues he teaches but had previously been foreign to him. McCarthy presented the themes of identity, immigration, deportation, and race relations within the society of post 9/11 New York City in an unforced, non-didactic, fresh, vibrant, emotionally driven and undeniably humane fashion. The film simply unfolded so naturally, so unpredictably and it was also risky and constantly surprising, making for a film that was so beautifully painful it ached.

“Win Win,” by contrast, is an equally complex film that unfortunately seemed to be following some sort of a storytelling road map as all of the film’s crescendos and pitfalls unfolded in the most predictable fashions. Everything happens in the ways you think they will and that, in and of itself, would be fine but the characters have to be allowed to rise highly above any semblance of formula. To a degree they do, but ultimately, “Win Win” ends up being a movie about characters performing acts of great risk in a film that refuses to take any risks.

For a story that contains this much inherent discussion with moral and ethical issues. McCarthy doesn’t seem to want to wade confidently into the deeper, darker waters that is necessary, which makes for a film where the murkier elements are kept to the fringes and the solutions are too pat, too easy, and too simplistic. “Win Win” never confronts the proverbial “elephant in the room,” and it never wants to get its hands dirty. It was almost as if the experience of “The Visitor” was perhaps too draining to McCarthy and he just didn’t want to go through it all again.

Jason Reitman proved that one could make a dark film with a light touch with “Up In The Air” and I felt that McCarthy needed to jolt “Win Win” with the same commitment. The character of Mike Flaherty, while being a nice man who loves his family and prides himself on being a good lawyer, is indeed deeply involved with an embezzlement scheme. Serious, serious crime folks. But, McCarthy seems to want us to like this man so much that the truthfulness of his crimes are kept completely at arms length and are only mentioned in the film when it seems to have to bring it up. Remember the late film revelation about Jim Court (John Mahoney) in Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything…” (1989)? That man had real and harsh consequences for his illicit actions and yet, his story and the honesty portrayed within his personal story did not derail or dovetail the film tonally.

Furthermore is Burt Young's character of Leo Poplar, who is completely marginalized. Yes, this is Mike Flaherty’s story and not necessarily Poplar’s but it is their relationship and Mike’s actions concerning Poplar’s health that truly sets this story in motion. And for some reason, we never really gather a sense of what Poplar’s experience is. Sure, he would rather be home than in assisted living, but aside from that information, we don’t really know anything about him, how he feels about his situation and most importantly, how he feels about Mike acting as his legal guardian. It’s a wasted opportunity and the film again feels as if it just does not want to travel down this road.

If by any chance any of you have seen Writer/Director Tamara Jenkins’ dark brother/sister comedy-drama “The Savages” (2007), you may recall that it is the Father’s painful descent into dementia that fuels the drama between the siblings played by Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Laura Linney. However, Jenkins made time for the Father, tragically played by Philip Bosco, and explored his emotional state as his mind slowly disintegrated. This particular and disturbing attention underpinned “The Savages” with an essential gravity, a weight that was criminally missing from “Win Win.”

“Win Win” is, by no means, a failure. It accomplishes what it sets out to do and from the overwhelmingly positive critical reaction, as well as the similar reaction from the viewers I saw it with, it’s possible that McCarthy accomplished his feats very well. I just wanted something deeper, stronger, better and much more emotionally affecting, honest and unmerciful.

And the more I think about it, I think I’ll go ahead and rent McCarthy’s “The Visitor” again.