"Win
Win" is one of those 'small' independent films dealing with families
that gets its message across without any fanfare. Written and directed
by Tom McCarthy it is a story, with a beginning, middle and end,  of a
middle class man having an emotional and financial mid-life crises,
played by Paul Giamatti, who plays middle class, with the world on his
shoulders, better than most.

Mike
Flaherty, (Giamatti) is a lawyer living in a small New Jersey town,
married, (Amy Ryan), with two children, who is falling behind in his
bills and finds a way out with one , of his very few, clients (Burt
Young) and who is a wrestling coach for a losing high school team, which
becomes a winning team with the client's grandson. Mike's two friends,
Terry, (Bobby Cannavale) and Stephen, (Jeffrey Tambor) help him with the
team and are there for him when he needs them and even when he doesn't.

Kyle,
(Alex Shaffer), the grandson, has run away from his mother, (Melanie
Lynskey),  who is a drug addict in rehab and hasn't spoken, or seen, her
father in a long time.

At heart all
these people are basically decent human beings who will do the right
thing when given the opportunity and they do in this film which is very
pro family.

This is a comfortable film,
except for the cursing which earned it an R rating, with good actors
doing what they do best and the newcomer, Alex Shaffer, holding his own.
The family feels like a family, the friends are just that and the high
school wrestling scenes and the interaction between  the teenagers ring
true.