Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a lawyer who has some trouble keeping his law firm profitable. He hardly gets any new clients and when he sees an opportunity with a client to suddenly get a steady monthly payment he decides to make some decisions which will come back to haunt him. The result of this is that the grandson of the client, Kyle (Alex Shaffer), suddenly appears who has run away from home. Mike is forced to take care of him and try to solve the mess he created.
He finds out that Kyle has a big talent for wrestling and as Mike is a wrestling coach he decides to enroll him. Looking at the promo material you might think this is a movie about wrestling, but is as much a sports movie as Black Swan is a movie about dancing, it’s just a backdrop to tell its story and is actually just a small part of it. It’s more a story about relationships.
This might be a relatively small movie, but it’s worth watching. Both Paul Giamatti and Alex Shaffer give great performances as they convince as two individuals with their own issues. Besides the drama this movie also has some funny moments (the bits between the coaches for example). Win Win is one of the better movies I´ve seen this year, a nice surprise.
Score: 9
Nice to see you say it is one of the best movies you have seen this year. It will be added to my “to watch list” as of now. Plus I do like Paul Giamatti
Well, one of the better movies this year 🙂 It’s worth watching. Don’t know yet if it will appear in my top 10 of 2011….
I must get around to watching this. And wit a big score like that Nostra I know I am gonna love it!!
Haha, I’m waiting for the movie that we disagree on 😉
I saw this early in the year and even though I thought it came off if a little clichéd at times, I agree it was definitely worth watching. Paul Giamatti is always good to watch no matter what he’s in. You should check him out in ‘Barney’s Version’ which was released earlier in the year.
I liked the fact that it played with your expectations. Usually in a movie every little thing that happens is used later in the movie. I usually pick up on that. When a movie doesn’t do that with some things (with the heater for example) it already gets some extra points in my book.
Have seen the trailer of Barney’s Version, but it didn’t look that interesting to me….is it worth watching?
This probably right up there as my favorite movie of the year…(Bellflower and Midnight in Paris) take the other honors.
I guess it helps that Paul Giamatti is one of my favorite actors ever since he knocked it out the park with ‘Sideways’.
Wow, I don’t think it will be my favorite movie this year, but will probably be in the top 10. I haven’t seen Bellflower yet, but Midnight in Paris will end up high for sure.
I didn’t like SIdeways myself, somehow just couldn’t connect with its characters.
I agree with Stephen, Win Win was ok, but a little too predictable for my liking, and yes, Barney’s Version was good,and worth watching. (Barney’s version is in my top 10 of 2011, and I plan to review it soon)
from Chris
Haven’t watched Barney’s Version, watching the trailer of it, it just seemed like a movie which I most likely would not enjoy….I guess I should give it a chance though….