Win Win

Colour, DCP
USA, 2011, 106 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Second-rate attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) moonlights as a high school wrestling coach because clients aren’t lining up for his services in the small town he calls home. The kindly, ordinary, 40-something man has one goal in life: to keep his family happy. And so one day, under the burden of a discreditable financial situation, he decides to take a rather dodgy step, thanks to which he can expect a fat paycheck from an aging client named Leo Poplar (the legendary Burt Young). But Mike’s momentary moral lapse catches up with him when he chances upon Leo’s rebellious grandson. In his latest effort, presented at Sundance this January, the director of the popular titles The Station Agent and The Visitor once again relies on his favorite, well-oiled plot scheme: the script for Win Win is also grounded in an encounter between two diametrically opposed individuals who are forced by unusual circumstances to temporarily share the same environment and, as a result, to look at their lives from a new perspective.

About the director

Tom McCarthy (b. 1969, New Jersey, USA) is an American actor working in television (the series "Boston Public,” "The Wire”) and film, including Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Syriana (2005), and The Flags of Our Fathers (2006). He debuted as a writer-director with The Station Agent (2003), which premiered at Sundance and took the Audience Award. Among many other prizes, the film also won a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, and the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2006 KVIFF included The Station Agent in its Sundance at Karlovy Vary section. McCarthy presented his second film, The Visitor, in person during the Horizons screening at KVIFF in 2008.