For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Win Win
The Impression:
Tom McCarthy’s films tread the line of heart-warming and
caustic in a way I find endearing. I found The Station
Agent almost too much of an experiment, but The
Visitor is a fine film that builds on the innate skill
McCarthy shows off in his earlier work. Throw a heavy
helping of Paul Giamatti in to the mix and blind me with
that fantastic poster and this is a win, err ... win, before
I’ve even hit the mat.
The Reality:
Win Win is striking in the fact that is, in its heart
of hearts, a feel good sports flick in the vein of
Hoosiers. A good-guy lawyer/high school wrestling coach
(Paul Giamatti) gets in way too far over his head when a
troubled youth/all-star wrestler (Alex Shaffer) enters his
life. Sounds cloying right? It’s not, McCarthy brings a
solid wit and a soft touch to the material and the film
absolutely resonates because of it. The wrestling in the
film becomes merely an analogy for the inner life of these
bruised and still beautiful characters. None of these
characters are perfect, none of them entirely bad, they’re
just real people existing in a very real world. Giamatti
impresses, as always, stepping sideways away from his
typecast schlub role, to play a man crumbling under the
weight of trying to be everything for everyone and failing.
And that’s where the movie really shines, it doesn’t chug
along towards a predictable ending, it slouches and slumps
and runs and stumbles towards a conclusion entirely
believable. I’m astounded, shocked even that this film isn’t
being released large the entire nation over. It is a
surefire blockbuster it just needs the screens to prove it.
The Lesson:
Tom McCarthy is the real deal.
- Noah Sanders
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