Win Win

Directed by Thomas McCarthy. Starring Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer 15A cert, limited release, 103 min

THOMAS McCarthy, director of The Station Agentand The Visitor, is fast becoming one of the most reliable directors of unthreatening, mildly independent American pictures. Win Win might be his best yet. Like its predecessors, the film ploughs little new ground and fails to scare any horses. But it is another charming, touching piece featuring high-grade acting throughout.

If the film has a theme, it is the effects of the recession on the decent citizens of middle America (presuming suburban New Jersey meets the relevant criteria). Paul Giamatti – more pressed down and hangdog than ever – plays Mike Flaherty, a lawyer struggling with debts and a severe downturn in business.

This is one of those rare films that manages to find a good man interesting. In the opening act, Mike elects to act as guardian to an elderly client (the great Burt Young) and – making an apparently rare amoral decision – agrees, against the old chap’s wishes, to put him in a home and take a subsidy from the state.

Shortly thereafter, Kyle, his charge’s grandson, child to an estranged, booze-addled daughter, slopes into town and announces a desire to establish connections with his aged relative. Played with low-key charm by newcomer Alex Shaffer, the kid smokes heavily and is dramatically tattooed. But he’s a kind chap and stunningly adept at the arcane art of proper wrestling. (The sort with the funny ear guards, not the version where faux-vampires wallop fake gravediggers with folded chairs).

Mike, coach of the local school’s team, offers the kid a bed in his house and a place on the grappling squad. Soon his boys are heading to the top of the league and Kyle’s quiet charm is cheering up the family. Then mum turns up.

If you wished to pick holes with Win Win you could point out that every one of the characters is a charmer apart from Kyle's selfish, cynical single parent. Still, the tone is otherwise so warm – and McCarthy such a conspicuous liberal – that the film can hardly be viewed as a stealth attack on welfare mothers. Endlessly charming, gently funny, Win Winrestores the good name of cosy drama.