Sometimes when life is out of control desperate people do things to try and gain back control that just make things worse. Director/writer Tom McCarthy, who made the fabulous THE STATION AGENT and THE VISITOR, presents us with two characters whose lives are spinning out of control. One makes the wrong decision and the other the right decision. It's surprising that a tattooed 16-year-old is in the right.
Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti, AMERICAN SPLENDOR) is a lawyer who represents the estates of the elderly. His practice is struggling. He's keeping the financial problems from his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan, GONE BABY GONE). One of his clients, Leo Poplar (Burt Young, ROCKY), is suffering from dementia and has been ruled incapacitated by the court. Mike knows Leo wants to stay in his house so he petitions the judge to allow him to become the old man's guardian and make sure he can stay there. Mike isn't just a nice guy. He gets $1,500 per month for being the guardian and he moves Leo into a home because it's easier on him to watch over him.
Arriving on Leo's doorstep is his grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer). His mother Cindy (Melanie Lynskey, HEAVENLY CREATURES) is in rehab again, so he has come to live with Leo, who has never met him before. So now Mike feels obligated to take the teen in. Mike is the coach of the lousy local high school wrestling team and takes Kyle to practice. Turns out, Kyle was a champion back in Ohio and Mike wants the ringer for his team.
Wrestling gives Kyle a sense of control over at least one aspect of his life. Coaching Kyle allows Mike to vicariously feel the same. Mike's best friend Terry (Bobby Cannavale, THE STATION AGENT) is going through an ugly divorce and volunteers to be an assistant coach on the team just to feel the glow of success from Kyle. The problem is Kyle is only a band-aid.
Giamatti is always good as the average Joe down on his luck. He brings the right notes to the character making him sympathetic while doing something morally questionable. Giamatti makes us believe that his character is intending to do the right thing while doing the wrong thing. Ryan gives the wife role a bit of an edge. This is a Jersey girl and you don't mess with a Jersey girl. Cannavale is here for humor purposes and works very well against Jeffrey Tambor (TV's THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW), who plays Stephen Vigman, Mike's first assistant coach before Terry pushed his way in. Now Stephen feels like he's being pushed aside. He's a master of the passive-aggressive mutterings under his breath.
Sports play a driving force in the film, but it is not the center. We root for Kyle's success because he's a kid trying to gain control over a life that is partly out of control not due to anything he did. When his mother surfaces again, we know that control for both Mike and Kyle will be hard to keep. When things get to a tipping point, one of them will make the right choice and one of them the wrong one. But sometimes learning from mistakes makes for a win win situation.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
