Morally dubious but eminently watchable

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2012)

Paul Giamatti is a terrific actor with a deceptively naturalistic style and I really enjoyed his big screen work in movies like "Sideways" and his small screen performance in the series "John Adams". Here writer and director Tom McCarthy provides Giamatti with an appealing role as Mike Flaherty, a lawyer in a small New Jersey town who is facing a hard time financially and makes a wrong decision that nevertheless ultimately has some welcome consequences.
The decision and the consequences revolve around the aged Leo (Burt Young) who is in the early stages of dementia and his weird teenage grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer). Along the way, Mike has to wrestle with his conscience, while Kyle wrestles with a high school team, with both coming out on top in a tale that is perhaps a little too neat and oddly amoral but often wryly amusing and eminently watchable.