Win Win (2011)

A struggling lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach's chicanery comes back to haunt him when the teenage grandson of the client he has double-crossed comes into his life.

Director:

Tom McCarthy

Writers:

Tom McCarthy (screenplay), Tom McCarthy (story)

Stars:

Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor

5 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Giamatti	...	Mike Flaherty
Amy Ryan	...	Jackie Flaherty
Bobby Cannavale	...	Terry Delfino
Jeffrey Tambor	...	Stephen Vigman
Burt Young	...	Leo Poplar
Melanie Lynskey	...	Cindy
Alex Shaffer	...	Kyle
Margo Martindale	...	Eleanor
David Thompson	...	Stemler
Mike Diliello	...	Jimmy Reed
Nina Arianda	...	Shelly
Marcia Haufrecht	...	Gina Flaherty
Sharon Wilkins	...	Judge Lee
Clare Foley	...	Abby
Penelope Kindred	...	Stella

Storyline

Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy's mother shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything.

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Plot Keywords:

double cross | lawyer | wrestling | high school | coach | 

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Taglines:

In the game of life, you can't lose 'em all.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Searchlight [United States] Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 April 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gagnant gagnant

Filming Locations:

Gotham, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$464,420, 25 March 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$10,179,275, 17 July 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Everest Entertainment, Groundswell Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SDDS Datasat Dolby Surround 7.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tom McCarthy co-wrote the movie with his childhood buddy and wrestling teammate, Joe Tiboni.

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Goofs

When the team is on the bus heading to a match, they are going from their school in NJ to another school in NJ. However, the shot of the road they are driving down is in Rockville Centre, Long Island, NY (one of the admitted locations where the movie was filmed). In traveling from one school in NJ to another school in NJ, there would be absolutely no reason to pass through LI.

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Quotes

Abby: Where's Daddy?
Jackie Flaherty: He's running.
Abby: From what?

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Connections

Features Camp Reality (2007)

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Soundtracks

Crystal Mania
Written and Performed by James Lum
Courtesy of 5 Alarm Music

User Reviews

A nice film for a quiet afternoon.

Paul Giamatti is awesome, simple as that. Such a talented actor, I have yet to see him in a film that I haven't enjoyed. So of course Win Win is the next on the list on his impressive resume, the story was surprisingly quite complex but not difficult to keep track of which is the work of a great director.

The character of Jack is very reminiscent of Giamatti's character from Storytelling, a guy somewhat down on his luck who just can't seem to get ahead or on top of things, of course these films are very different but the similarities are definitely there.

Amy Ryan impressed me a lot, I've never seen her in anything before but after seeing this I look forward to catching other films with her, she has a great presence in screen and her and Giamatti work excellently together... Also worth mentioning is the always fantastic Jeffrey Tambor, equally as cool as Giamatti.

The only thing I thought didn't work was Melanie Lynskey, that woman has one of the sweetest faces and personalities, and seeing her playing a gold digging, backstabbing selfish mother just didn't work. I still love her though.

A nice film that is not groundbreaking, but especially entertaining and pleasant to watch.