Win Win

My wife's sister saw this movie at the theater when it was released. I have heard much good buzz about it and when my wife got it from RedBox we were looking forward to it.

Writer/Director Thomas McCarthy who is gaining traction as a great writer with an interesting slant on films jumps up a notch with this film. One expects that soon he will have a major, breakout, Oscar worthy film.

The cast in this movie is strong. Paul Giametti who might be one of our best actors stars as Mike Flaherty a New Jersey lawyer who is struggling to get enough cases to make ends meet. He also is a volunteer wrestling coach at the local high school. Needless to say the team is not successful and Flaherty is being beaten down by the world.

Having been hired pro bono to help an elderly man who, while wealthy, has no family to take care of him. Mike notices that whosoever does become his guardian gets paid a fifteen hundred dollar a month commission. Mike lobbies for the job and then unethically puts him in a home rather than keep him in his house.

Eventually this leads him to a young high school student named Kyle played by Alex Shaffer who is his new ward's grandson. Kyle is an excellent wrestler so you can see where that goes.

This movie is better than a description makes it sound. The characters are real and deep and flawed. This movie is wonderful.

Of special note is the performance by Burt Young as the elderly man who becomes Mike's ward. Any of us who grew up in the seventies cannot forget Burt Young from the Rocky movies. He is wonderful in this role.

Great movie