Win win

When a movie's first word of dialogue is "Shit", and it's whispered by a cute infant girl and then repeated by every character in a comic drama, you know the movie is an indie production. Win Win (2011) is writer-director Thomas McCarthy's third feature, and although it didn't boost his commercial cred (grossing only US$10 million), its charming credibility proved that The Station Agent (2003) and The Visitor (2007) weren't fluke film festival successes.

It isn't a damnation of faint praise to feel that Win Win could have been a TV movie. Its theme and characters are more mainstream than those of McCarthy's previous features.

As always, McCarthy's major talent is his ability to create and cast exceptional ensembles, comprising slightly screwball normal characters relating gingerly to each other, developing their special web of relationships that blend family love, friendship and humanity.

This time, McCarthy's core character is Paul Giamatti, fully inhabiting his role as a small-town attorney who coaches a high school wrestling club in the evenings. Business is poor for the family man, and he grabs a chance to land himself a high monthly commission from an elderly client with early dementia.

One downside soon appears in the form of the old man's blond-dyed dropout teenage grandson, played with dead pan style by newcomer Alex Shaffer, a former US state wrestling champion. It would be no surprise to learn that McCarthy met Shaffer first, then created the movie character of a troubled teenager who's a wrestling champ (with a drug-addicted mother).

Bobby Cannavale, who'd acted in The Station Agent, works with McCarthy again, as the coach's former college wrestling pal. Amy Ryan, a TV stalwart (most recently in The Office) is his judicious loving wife, Jeffrey Tambor his law practice partner, and veteran Burt Young (multiple Rocky appearances) the old man. All of them shine quietly, as does Kiwi Melanie Lynskey (Kate Winslet's schoolgirl ally in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures and Martin Sheen's foil in Two and a Half Men) in the tricky role of the druggie daughter. Each one of them presents a distinct voice, an attractively "normal" different speaking style, as distinct as the personalities and dialogue McCarthy wrote for them.

McCarthy also earned praise for co-writing Pixar's Up, and he's been a busy TV actor too since 1996, including seasons of Boston Public and The Wire. His all-round talent might not thrive in Hollywood's squillion-dollar commercial film industry, but it'll be a pity if his next movie also needs a four-year gestation period.