Win Win
Angelika Film Centre, April 29, 2011
Movie #25 for 2011
I really dig writer/director TOM McCARTHY (The Station Agent, The Visitor). I think he makes sensitive, beautiful films about engaging, flawed people in morally interesting, complex situations. His work is characterized by an attention to understated detail and a gentle unfolding of character. It’s right up my alley.
Mike (PAUL GIAMATTI - who is great in everything as long as he doesn’t have to put on an accent) is a small town lawyer, family man, high school wrestle team coach and general good guy. But he’s struggling a little. When he succumbs to temptation and bends his morals for financial benefit things start coming up Mike. Along with the money, there are other, unexpected benefits. Until, of course, things get complicated.
McCarthy is a seriously great writer - his ear for naturalistic dialogue is uncanny (and everything that Josh Radnor was wishing for in HappyThankYouMorePlease). His approach as director seems to be to hire very talented actors, and let them do their thing. The cast - AMY RYAN (Gone Baby Gone), JEFFREY TAMBOR (Hellboy), MELANIE LYNSKEY (Up in the Air), and newcomer ALEX SHAFFER as the young catalyst (pictured with Giamatti) - are all pitch perfect with the solid material. Only BOBBY CANNAVALE (The Station Agent, Snakes on a Plane) is a little off-key. His delivery is a little over the top, a little too obviously wacky or played for laughs. But, then again, I guess I DID laugh, so maybe it wasn’t all bad.
But the impact of Cannavale’s slightly jarring performance isn't huge as his character is peripheral to McCarthy’s understated, character-based moral-dilemma story. A story which is right up my alley.
