Director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) and Fox Searchlight showcase Paul Giamatti in Win Win with a screenplay THR says in its Sundance review, “never strikes a false note”:
It’s no surprise that McCarthy is a skilled actor’s director, but the heartfelt compassion and observational acuity that infuses the writer-director’s films is what distinguishes them most. In all three features, he has shown a rare ability to shape unexpected connections between very real people, guiding them toward gently uplifting outcomes that are neither manipulative nor sentimental. That might make him one of the least cynical filmmakers working in America.
Fox Searchlight has carved a robust niche in the past with releases that center on underdogs and borderline losers enduring without sacrificing a firm sense of who they are. Think Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. In many ways, Win Win fits that mold, which should make it McCarthy’s most broadly appealing movie to date.
(thanks to Jon, for the persistent reminders.) Win Win opens March 18, a month earlier than McCarthy’s The Visitor, another of Searchlight’s resilient Oscar Energizer Bunnies. Synopsis and poster after the cut.
Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything. (ioncinema)
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