About (and for) American Families

It has everything, “Win Win,” everything you want in a feel-good movie: a familiar uplifting story, note-perfect dialog, warmth and — important in a sports film — heart. Oh, it also has Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan in terrific, controlled yet intensely human performances. Writer-director Tom McCarthy (“The Station Agent” and “The Visitor”) strings together small but authentic moments of family life, stress and humor with unerring ease in an unusual take on a familiar but touching story. Elder-care attorney (and when was the last time you saw one of those in a movie?) Mike Flaherty faces financial worries as his practice falters, while the high school wrestling team he coaches never wins, its losing streak a metaphor for Mike’s professional situation. One day in court, Mike makes a sharp ethical turn and, taking financial advantage of his senile client’s needs, lies to the judge. All seems well until the client’s grandson, a diffident, bleached-blonde teenager named Kyle (played wonderfully by 18-year-old Alex Shaffer) arrives from Ohio, where he has fled his drugged-up mother and her most recent boyfriend. Kyle becomes part of Mike’s family when his wife, Jackie (Ryan), insists on taking the boy into their home. As Kyle hesitantly unwinds and bonds with Mike in halting steps, the film slowly blooms like a known but always surprising spring flower. And when Kyle shows interest in wrestling, finally revealing that he was a champion in Ohio (Shaffer was actually N.J. State high school champion in 2010), you’ll think you know the rest of the story and the ending. But you won’t. In Mike, Giamatti finally leaves the curmudgeonly, narcissistic, often saturnine characters of “Sideways,” “Barney’s Version” and even “John Adams” behind. Not that Mike isn’t driven to extremes, which Giamatti plays well, but mostly he is a man of spare dialog, looks and shrugs, suffering quietly for his subterfuges. He seems to melt, all double chin and fleshy flab, as the stress increases. Ryan is perfect: tart, grounded, protective, maternal without gushing. She is all sharp edges covering a big heart. Shaffer, of course, is the find. He will remind you of Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”: Spicoli with blonde hair and heart. You never take your eyes off him nor get tired of his flat, slightly nasal film voice. (I heard Giamatti and Shaffer in a Q and A at the SXSW film festival in Austin, TX, two weeks ago. Both were shy but quietly assured.) What makes “Win Win” so appealing is McCarthy’s humanism: He creates no caricatures, is not blatant with emotions or laughs and he is never, never sentimental (like the mush of Sandra Bullock’s “The Blind Side”). This is a film about American families at their flawed best; and it is a film for the whole family, too. “Win Win” opens Friday at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere.The film is rated R for language, in another of the rating board’s head-in-the-sand decisions.When you hear little Amy Flaherty imitating her mother’s mild obscenity, you’ll know what I mean.