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The
economy sucks and
unlike a few other
times when it’s been
down in recent
history, we hear
about it every day.
It’s in the news,
it’s in music, it’s
in the movies, and
it’s on TV shows.
It’s literally
everywhere. We can’t
get away from it and
in my not-so-expert
opinion the fact
that we’ve dwelled
on it so much, has
expanded the
situation and
extended the
duration of it too.
However, we don’t
get many economy
related movies that
are tied in with
real life and family
the way
Win
Win
is.
Paul Giamatti stars
as Mike Flaherty, a
family man and head
of a household
that’s been hit by
the economy as hard
as anyone. His
daytime occupation,
he has a small law
practice that
focuses on elderly
clients with elderly
issues. His other
gig, Mike is a high
school wrestling
coach for a team
that hasn’t seen
very many victories
in recent years. As
Mike continues to
struggle with money
and money-related
issues an
opportunity to
become a guardian
for one of his
clients named Leo
Poplar comes up. If
Mike serves as Leo’s
guardian, he gets
$1500.00 a month. So
Mike takes on the
responsibility of
being Leo’s guardian
so he can stay in
his own home.
However, Mike
doesn’t let Leo stay
at home; he puts him
into a nursing home…
which is obviously
wrong. Mike’s doing
this but something
unexpected happens.
Leo’s grandson Kyle
shows up to live
with him, he’s got
nowhere else to go
and nothing else to
do. So Mike takes in
Kyle, Leo lives at
the nursing home and
life goes on. Kyle
living with Mike and
his family has
rejuvenated
everyone. Mike’s
wife Jackie and
their two daughters
love Kyle and
conveniently he’s a
great wrestler too.
He gets Mike’s team
inspired enough to
win their first
match. While this is
going on and Kyle
becomes a part of
the Flaherty family.
Of course there’s an
arc where Kyle finds
out what Mike did
and things have to
get resolved, but
it’s great to see it
happen on screen.
This
movie’s plotline
fantastic. A glance
at an overview won’t
tell you the
complexities of it
but there are
complexities. You
get an hour and a
half peek into a
guy’s life that’s
pretty realistic. It
doesn’t lean you one
way or the other so
you root for him
more or less, it
just tells you what
he does. You see
Mike make this
pretty terrible
choice, but it never
really comes out and
tells you how
terrible it is. To
him, he was just
doing what he
thought he needed to
do.
It
takes a similar
approach to every
character in the
movie. You connect
with them sure, but
you connect with
them as an
observation and less
of a jury member.
Kyle’s mom is an
awful person but the
movie doesn’t make
you think she’s
terrible. You just
get to understand
her a little bit.
That’s the way with
all of the
characters in the
movie. The movie is
very realistic in
writing and
approach. Maybe it
wraps things up a
bit too quickly at
its end but it still
ends and
realistically so.
Win
Win
is a great movie to
watch. If you like
movies with great
music, great acting,
great writing, and
great direction then
you’ll love this
movie. It’s unique
and heartwarming.
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