Win Win – Blu-ray Review

The Flick:

Director Thomas McCarthy has a knack for telling stories involving families that struggle to gain a foothold on their relationships and financial responsibilities. His previous films, The Station Agent, and The Visitor both dealt with similar themes, and Win Win deals with those themes too, and does so quite well.

Paul Giamatti is perfectly cast as Mike Flaherty, a lawyer that specializes in elder-care. Mike’s life is not turning out like he hoped it would. His law practice is barely staying afloat, and he is experiencing panic attacks. In order to relieve some of the financial pressure Mike decides to become the court-appointed guardian of Leo Poplar (Burt Young), one of his clients that can’t care for himself. This would be a pretty impressive gesture if Mike would carry out his guardianship by taking care of Leo in his own home the way he requested, but instead Mike brings him to a nursing home. Justifying this decision by telling himself it would be worse if Leo was to become a ward of the State.

On top of all Mike’s financial and ethical woes, he is the head coach for a high school wrestling team that couldn’t fight their way out of a paper-bag. Of course things can’t go easy for Mike. If they did we wouldn’t get to enjoy this wonderful story. Enter Kyle (Alex Shaffer), Leo’s grandson. Kyle shows up looking for his grandfather, one thing leads to another, and soon the Kyle is living with Mike and his family while they do their best to contact his drug addicted mom.

Sound depressing? It is, but it is also extremely uplifting. Kyle just happens to be a really great wrestler, and helps catapult Mike’s team to the top of the heap. Even when Mike’s ethics come into question the film never drops the ball. It never loses sight of the importance of family.

McCarthy wrote an extremely solid screenplay, and he assembled a wonderful cast with chemistry to spare. Bobby Cannavale in particular is a scene stealer as Mike’s friend Terry, and newcomer Alex Shaffer is stellar as a troubled teen with a big heart. Win Win isn’t the most beautiful film, but it is well lit and lets the characters tell the story instead of relying on camera heroics to pull in the viewer. It is absolutely a killer film.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video

The audio came in loud and clear. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound is pretty solid, and is impressive during some of the soundtracks musical moments. The video looks fantastic for such a subdued picture.

Special Features

Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni discuss Win Win: This creative team talks about the film’s script.

Deleted Scenes: Just a few deleted scenes that aren’t really worth watching.

In Conversation: Tom McCarthy and Paul Giamatti give a short interview from Sundance 2011.

Another promo entitled Family, the film’s Theatrical Trailer, and a Music Video round out this disc.

The Flick: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: