Simple Plan Could Have Complicated Legal Consequences in 'Wi

The new film from writer-director Tom McCarthy explores themes he featured in his acclaimed¹ earlier films The Station Agent and The Visitor: issues of family connections and choices ordinary people make in everyday life. Here's a look at the bittersweet comedy Win Win.
"What is it like to be as good as you are?"
"It feels like I'm in control of everything, you know?"
"It must be nice."
Mike Flaherty is an attorney in a small American town where his practice barely brings in enough money to support his family.
A decent and ethical² guy, Mike bends the rules in order to get a much-needed payment from an elderly client who has no family willing to care for him. It seems like a harmless enough choice, but the consequences mount up when Kyle, Mr. Poplar's teenaged grandson, unexpectedly shows up.
Kimberly Wright TM
Paul Giamatti, Clare Foley II, and Amy Ryan in "Win Win"
Mike's wife insists they take care of Kyle until the situation is sorted out. And, it turns out, the teenager is a talented wrestler³ who becomes a valued member of the high school team that Mike coaches part-time.
It should be a "Win Win" situation: that is, good for everyone involved. However, the secret that lawyer Mike is keeping from everyone because he needs the income from his client's care threatens to bring down his family and legal career.
Paul Giamatti stars as Mike Flaherty. He says the role was complex because the character is so ordinary.
Kimberly Wright TM
From left: Amy Ryan, Paul Giamatti, Burt Young, Bobby Cannavale and Alex Shaffer in "Win Win"
"It was a tricky⁴ part because the guy was content and not kind of emotionally extreme and things like that, which I'm more used to doing," explains Giamatti. "The challenge was trying to play somebody content, happy with his life, decent, kind of a good natured person, all of these things without it appearing vapid⁵.
"I thought the story and what he was trying to do in this was really interesting: the portrait of suburban⁶ life and then all the sort of complications in these peoples' lives, people slightly morally compromising themselves, " he adds.
Earlier films by writer and director Tom McCarthy focused on individuals who tried to withdraw from life. With Win Win, the filmmaker says he wanted to highlight how vital it is to cultivate and keep relationships with other people.
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Director Tom McCarthy, Paul Giamatti and Alex Shaffer on the set of "Win Win"
"In many ways this movie was the inverse⁷ of my earlier films where [in Win Win] we have a guy who is completely involved in his community, with the team and in every which way probably overextended to some extent, considering the financial burden he had to deal with and how that might change," explains McCarthy. "As a filmmaker and a storyteller, I was interested in exploring that: just a busier life and more full life, as opposed to someone who is living on the fringe."
McCarthy decided⁸ to cast a real high school wrestling champion with no previous acting⁹ experience in the role of the film's "loner," Kyle.
"I decided early on that I wanted to get a wrestler and help him to learn how to act, as opposed to going the other way around, getting an actor and teaching him how to wrestle," he explains. "I'm a big sports nut and I can't stand it when I see a movie with sports and I don't believe that the actor playing the role is actually proficient¹⁰ in the sport. "
He chose Alex Shaffer who, in his acting debut¹¹, holds his own opposite veteran actors Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan, who plays Mike's patient, but skeptical¹² wife.
"It was cool working with actors like this," Shaffer says. "At the time, I didn't really realize how big of a deal it was, but now I know it's certainly something special."
It's a "Win Win" situation for the young co-star. Shaffer is now studying acting and plans to pursue it as a career.

1 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

2 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

3 wrestler   

n.摔角选手，扭

参考例句：

• The wrestler tripped up his opponent.那个摔跤运动员把对手绊倒在地。
• The stronger wrestler won the first throw.较壮的那个摔跤手第一跤就赢了。

4 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

5 vapid   

adj.无味的；无生气的

参考例句：

• She made a vapid comment about the weather.她对天气作了一番平淡无奇的评论。
• He did the same thing year by year and found life vapid.他每年做着同样的事，觉得生活索然无味。

6 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

7 inverse   

adj.相反的，倒转的，反转的；n.相反之物；v.倒转

参考例句：

• Evil is the inverse of good.恶是善的反面。
• When the direct approach failed he tried the inverse.当直接方法失败时，他尝试相反的做法。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 proficient   

adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家

参考例句：

• She is proficient at swimming.她精通游泳。
• I think I'm quite proficient in both written and spoken English.我认为我在英语读写方面相当熟练。

11 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

12 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。