Paul Giamatti can do no wrong – at least not while he’s acting in movies. In the last few months, I have seen him deliver flawless performances as Mike Flaherty, the fallible “hero” of Win Win; as Barney Panofsky, an irascible man and the subject of Barney’s Version; and as a nuanced Ben Bernanke in HBO’s Too Big To Fail, the story of the 2008 near worldwide economic collapse. Giamatti is a treasure; in Win Win he portrays an ordinary man, a lawyer and wrestling coach, trapped in the recession, making immoral and amoral decisions that help dig his hole a little deeper. Giamatti’s skill in playing this character is that we can watch him do it, disapprove of Flaherty, and still care about him, hoping he’ll dig himself out. As his wife, Amy Ryan is the Rock of Gibraltar with a strong moral compass. Unbeknownst to her, Flaherty is making an extra $1,500 a month by becoming the legal guardian of Leo, a man with dementia played by Paul Young. Out of nowhere, Leo’s grandson Kyle appears (played by Alex Shaffer in his first role), a wrestling phenomenon. There are fine performances all around in this independent film about ordinary people trying to do the right thing.
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it
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