life's complications

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2015)

A small-town lawyer fallen on hard times sees a way to exploit a rich client and help his family out of a financial hole. The plan works well till the client's grandson turns up, and then begins a process of unravelling and recrimination. Paul Giamatti is perfectly cast as the well-intentioned lawyer, a good man in an indifferent universe trying to keep it all together. Alex Shaffer absolutely nails the taciturn teenage Kyle. The offspring of a drug-addicted single mother, he gives off that world weariness and flinty edge that emanates from a child that has seen too much too young. The script is full of finely observed little moments, touches of pathos and humour, dotted with those little reversals that life lobs at us like hand grenades. When Kyle's mother shows up suddenly with legal representation, you can feel the knots in your stomach beginning to form. Genuine in its intentions, and stripped of sentimentality, this is a rewarding, entertaining film with no discordant notes.