Great Indie flick

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2011)

I snuck into this film after hearing some hype about it over twitter. I didn't expect much from an indie drama that I thought was going to be about high school wrestling. But after the first act, I realized that this flick was definitely more then what I could have imagined it's potential to be. Paul Giamatti plays a lawyer who is having some troubles financially and having some stress related issues, so he becomes a guardian of one of his wealthy clients who has dementia so he can make some extra money on the side. But this leads to him taking care of his clients nephew. As the movie carries on, the family starts to bond with the nephew, who happens to be a talented wrestler, and he has some serious mother issues. But after awhile, his mother comes looking for him, mostly because she wants the money she could earn by being the guardian of her father who she hasn't seen in 20 years. So Paul Giamatti's character gets caught in a mess when he has to reveal to his wife and this newly found "Family member" that he has been lieing to them.
This story is really touching because it deals with such real sculpted characters. Each one of them goes through some sort of change throughout the film, and you can understand thoroughly why they went through the change and you can probably relate to their issues and habits. One of the things that did bother me about this film was some of the editing. some scenes where filmed perfectly, with great shot selection and amazing dialogue and acting. but then some seemed really off and over acted, or really badly paced. Some scenes also ended on the same line, which added a nice touch to the realism of the film, but ultimately caused repetition in the dialogue. But this is a double edged sword for me, since most of those scenes could be viewed in those slow pacing/repetitious dialogue sense. but they also portrayed the characters reactions to different things at significant points in the story, so it could be more of a kudos to the director for making that impact... But I'd have to judge that perspective on a second view, which I'd definitely recommend.