Review: Win Win

Writer-director Thomas McCarthy knows that even the smallest of choices can have a profound impact on ordinary lives. His latest movie Win Win, which played SXSW and returns to Austin theaters on Friday, proves McCarthy is a master filmmaker, taking an otherwise ordinary life into another profoundly moving film.

Paul Giamatti stars as Mike, a mostly content family man with a struggling law practice. Like everyone else these days, he's just one bad month away financial disaster. When Mike seizes an opportunity to ease the strain, the consequences include an unexpected addition to his household in the form of  teenager Kyle (Alex Shaffer).

Like other McCarthy protagonists, Mike's quiet existence is interrupted by a stranger's intrusions and reluctantly embraces the change. Kyle simply wants to see his grandfather (Burt Young), who now resides in a senior care facility, so Mike and wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) take him in until they can talk to his mother (Melanie Lynskey).

Soon enough, Kyle becomes a member of the family and everyone happily settles into a new routine. But of course, smooth sailing doesn't make for an interesting film. Kyle's mother doesn't remain lost, and the not-quite-ethical opportunity comes back to haunt Mike.

Win Win isn't a grandiose film with intense moments of drama; instead, it relies on familiar moments. It never quite gets suspenseful nor as gut-wrenching in its drama. But that doesn't make it any less interesting as a movie. Mike is a likeable guy and it's hard not to feel for his situation. It's also easy to see how Mike and Jackie so quickly let Kyle into their family. What makes Win Win work is that the people in the film are equally familiar and flawed as most people see themselves to be.

McCarthy didn't so much as burst onto the indie film scene as he made his presence known with his quietly profound tale of the unlikely relationships in The Station Agent. His second film The Visitor continued his exploration of the human condition through unlikely relationships and not only won the hearts of SXSW 2008 audiences, but earned an Oscar nod for star Richard Jenkins (and won a Spirit award for McCarthy). He's written and directed each of his films and infused a distinct sensibility that not only are we not meant to be alone, that family is more than biology.

As the title implies, Win Win is about winning and losing, and just what that means in daily life. And Win Win will win you over.