Win Win (2011–106 mins) P. Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Alex Shaffer 

Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) is an everyman who tries to do the right thing for everyone else all the time. He takes up for his clients, he does extra work himself in the office, volunteers as a high school wrestling coach, and tries to always be the perfect father and husband. The biggest problem with this is, it put him behind in life financially and he’s between a rock and virtual bankruptcy. He does something completely outside of himself in getting himself declared the legal guardian for one of his clients, and sticking him in an old folks home in order to pocket a chunk of a monthly check form the government. One day tho, the clients grandson,Kyle (Shaffer) comes running to him for help (even though they have hardly ever met), and a place to live while his mom is in rehab for the thousandth time, only to find he is in a home. Mike then decides to take the kid into his own home for a while until things can fully get straightened out. Kyle is a good kid and takes to the family well, and also happens to be a world class wrestler, which helps out Mike even more in life. Everything is going peachy in our story until, that is, Kyle’s mom shows up. Naturally the one shady thing in life that Mike has done will come back to haunt him later.

The film is a character study about a man taking a lost kid under his belt and being the father figure he never had. These two truly need each other in life for their souls to grow a bit. Mike needs someone to show him he is a good person and father, and Kyle needs that stability of a family and a father figure. The obvious problem arises when the father figure Kyle looks up to and loves, turns out to be just as betraying (in his mind) as the useless addict mother he has. The trick is how will everyone figure out how to make it work and how will it all end. Well, you will have to rent it and check out the whole journey and not the cliffs-notes version I just gave you. It’s really a great movie in my opinion. The two actors perform so well with each other, that you would think they really were related. So well, in fact, that it’s hard to believe that this is Shaffer’s first and only acting credit. He plays Kyle so well that you feel like you are looking at a real kid in trouble. There’s not a terribly huge amount that goes on in the film but it’s still a great, and interesting watch.

Verdict—> A great character movie/story that I think anyone will enjoy. Not too long, so good for a two movie night, and enjoyable enough for any sort of movie audience, but still might be a bit much for anyone under 13 or so. A top pick recommendation from the red box. Pick it up,, has a good chance to end up on my top 10 red box movies of this year.

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