Win-Win

Win-Win was available on Cinemax on demand and I heard good things and saw it was tracking 94% or something crazy high on rotten tomatoes. I'm a pretty big fan of Paul Giamatti despite the fact he really is normally the same character of an older, generally calm guy who has bouts of intense yelling and anger that is generally awesome. Good additions of Amy Ryan (of The Office fame), Jeff Tambor, Burt Young (Pauly from Rocky), and newcomer Alex Shaffer who is excellent in the role of Kyle. Giamatti has two daughters and is married to Amy Ryan. He runs a struggling law office where his primary clients are the elderly. He finds a hidden gem in Burt Young's character, an elderly man in the early stages of dementia who can no longer take care of himself, but doesn't want to go to a home. Giamatti notices he would receive $1500 a month to be his guardian, so he tells the court he'll take care of him and keep him at home, but he enrolls him into an elderly home all the same when his daughter fails to answer any of the letters or calls his law office makes. Kyle shows up at Paul Young's house and says he's his grandson and things start to get real interesting. Great story, acting, writing, EVERYTHING. A solid film throughout carried by Giamatti similar to Sideways. Kyle Shaffer was a great high school wrestler which shines through in his performance, but his career ended when he broke his L-5 vertebrae (www.imdb.com SHOUT-OUT).

Bottom Line: 8.6 out of 10. I really liked the movie and besides some unavoidable slower parts I thought it was really good. I'm probably too high on Shaffer, but for your first acting performance he certainly held his own.