Everything you expect.

Rating: 5/10 (7 August 2011)

Pretty much your standard indie film, with all of the conflicts and resolutions you expect. The film has a pretty silly setup; Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a lawyer who, through a series of far-fetched events, ends up taking care of Kyle (Alex Shaffer), the grandson of one of his clients. The entire premise was absurd and this gave me a bit of trouble really getting into the film. Also giving me trouble was the fact that we're supposed to root for Mike when almost right after we meet him he does something so immoral that it made it almost impossible for me to do so. The actors all do a solid job which makes it kind of worthwhile, but there's still just so many clichés and the film does absolutely nothing new.
Paul Giamatti is his usual Giamatti self, very solid but he doesn't do anything new. Amy Ryan is her usual Ryan self, very solid but she doesn't do anything new. Melanie Lynskey does what she can with an incredibly thin, despicable character that is only brought around so the film can have some sort of conflict. Bobby Cannavale is stuck in the god awful idiot comic relief role. Alex Shaffer is honestly the only thing in the film that I really liked. For a first time actor he was excellent, taking a character that could have easily been quite annoying and unlikable and making him someone that I really felt for and wanted to see as much as possible. He instantly made me like him and I was attached to him the whole time. Aside from Shaffer though, the film is just one standard indie move after another.