Warm Fuzzies

Rating: 7/10 (20 April 2011)

Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent and The Visitor set me up for something spectacular. Was it spectacular? No, but it was entirely enjoyable and left me satisfied with a good concoction of humor and warm fuzzies. It's important to know that Win Win didn't abandon common sense in order to contrive its feel-good moments. It felt honest. Tom McCarthy has demonstrated the ability to write in enough complexity and flaws into his characters to create sincere connections amongst his characters that don't require cheap happy endings for warm fuzzies. Jackie (Amy Ryan) is the wife of Mike (Paul Giamatti) and mother of two girls. Rather than simply a sounding board to the central male protagonist, Jackie is a separate force of spunk and integrity. Leo (Burt Young) and Terry (Bobby Cannavale) are delightful side characters that offer lots of comic relief in the somber story of ordinary folk. Kyle (Alex Shaffer), a troubled teenage boy, falls into the hands of Mike, a struggling small town attorney and an even worse-off high school wrestling coach. As anticipated by the trailers, Kyle turns out to be a remarkable wrestler. As exciting as wrestling can be (I have no idea what that feels like), this movie isn't the one to showcase its awesomeness. It's not really about the sport, or the game. In other words, I wouldn't get your hopes up for a heroic showdown of squirming prepubescent boys. Overall, a pretty good film: http://fatkidslist.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/win-win/