Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Wrestler

Giamatti brings his skills to this indie sports pic called Win Win.  Like most industrious Americans these days, he works two part time jobs: one as the town lawyer in a small New Jersey town, the other as a high school wrestling coach.  But money troubles are starting to weigh him down, and a chance to supplement his income comes in the form of caring for elderly friend of Sylvester Stallone, and Rodney Dangerfield's long suffering chauffeur in Back to School, Burt Young.  The circumstances are a tad conflict-of-interest-y to say the least, but they're safely buried in court documents.  But then... the need for the truth to be revealed arrives in the form of Kyle, the greatest high school wrestler of all time.  Giamatti has two best friends: Vig played by Hank Kingsley... I mean, Jeffrey Tambor, and Peter Pan as football jock Terry Delfino played by Tony Danza... I mean, Bobby Cannavale.  Kyle can't live with his mom because she's a drug addict.  She's played by Melanie Lynskey, the other star of Heavenly Creatures, as the sweetest drug addict mother who seems to show no signs of an addiction problem other than poor taste in wardrobe and a slight temper.  Giamatti has his cake and eats it for a while.  The team becomes something with Kyle at the helm, and money problems are staved off for now.  But eventually the whole house of cards comes crashing down.  Sorry, spoiler alert.  Fortunately for us, no story thread is left unresolved.  Croquet is eventually played, and Giamatti quits both jobs to pursue his fallback job mentioned in the movie.  You'll have to find out that part for yourself. (What's the opposite of spoiler alert?)

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-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan

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