Win Win
Tom McCarthy's new suburban comedy stars Paul Giamatti as a floundering attorney who cuts corners on ethics to take on a new client.
Directed by Tom McCarthy
(R)
***
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This new suburban comedy “wins you over, head and heart, without cheating,” said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. Writer-director Tom McCarthy, who previously created The Visitor and The Station Agent, has a talent for infusing simple stories with the “emotional heft of life as it’s lived.” His third film, starring Paul Giamatti as a floundering attorney who cuts corners on ethics to take on a new client, is “hilarious and heartfelt,” but “with a tough core that repels all things sappy.” The humorous bits are far more generic than McCarthy’s fans might expect, said Peter Debruge in Variety. For the first 75 minutes after Giamatti takes an old man’s money and dumps him in a retirement home, Win Win provides almost zero narrative tension but plenty of “low-key buffoonery.” But all along, Giamatti’s character is quietly redeeming himself by building a relationship with the new star of the high school wrestling team he coaches, said David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter. That’s not generic Hollywood. It’s the work of a director with a “rare ability” to guide his characters toward “gently uplifting outcomes.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Today's political cartoons - May 4, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - reflections in the pond, riding shotgun, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 high-caliber cartoons about Kristi Noem shooting her puppy
Cartoons Artists take on the rainbow bridge, a farm upstate, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Why is the world running low on blood?
Podcast Scientists believe universal donor blood is within reach – plus, the row over an immersive D-Day simulation, and an Ozempic faux pas
By The Week Staff Published