Scar Tissue

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 2012)

"Win Win" is a fairly good drama written and directed by Thomas McCarthy ("The Visitor", "The Station Agent"). Low-key but well acted, the film stars Paul Giamatti as a small town attorney who moonlights as a wrestling coach to keep himself out of bankruptcy. In this vein Giamatti persuades a local judge to appoint him guardian of a young, wayward kid, an act for which he will receive a fee of $1,500 per month. Giamatti thinks his actions will benefit everyone – he absorbs a little guilt and suffering so that others may be happy – but of course things come crashing down around him.
The film perhaps overloads on sentimentality towards its end, and McCarthy is perhaps too desperate to portray his characters "growing" and "learning important values", but as such low-key drama is increasingly rare, we let these failings slide.
8/10 – Worth one viewing.