FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Presents In ... - Central-Kino

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Tom McCarthy’s WIN WIN starts with an ordinary man who is struggling to survive and
provide in these tough economic times. As portrayed by Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti, Mike Flaherty
is a suburban father who wants more than anything to be a victorious wrestling coach, a winning
husband and father and a better friend. He gets his chance to be all those things with one questionable
choice that changes his life in ways he never expected, leading him not only on an incredible sports run
with a young wrestling phenom, but also to heartbreak, hard truths and a surprising road to redemption.
The result is McCarthy’s own witty, warm take as several of the characters -- especially Mike
Flaherty and his unexpected house-guest turned wrestling star, Kyle Timmons -- confront one of the
underlying dilemmas of our era: when times get tough, should you do whatever it takes to get ahead or
what you know is right in your heart?
“Mike Flaherty had a simple plan for his life, but in these times, it just doesn’t seem to be
happening. He’s a decent, humorous, hard-working guy who just makes one bad decision – and the fact
of the matter is that if he had really thought things through, he probably wouldn’t have done what he
did,” McCarthy comments. “What interested me was how good people sometimes make very faulty
decisions and have to find a way to live with them in the end. That became the compelling throughline
of the story. What started as a broad sports comedy became more of a human comedy.”
McCarthy’s first two films were critical and popular indie hits that introduced a compelling
voice to the film world – a comedic voice that is deeply humane at its core. THE STATION AGENT
was a poignantly funny character study of a loner drawn, in spite of himself, into a quirky, yet
sustaining circle of friends; THE VISITOR was the powerful story of a college professor who becomes
unwittingly embroiled in the lives of an immigrant couple trying to stay in America.
But with WIN WIN, McCarthy enters broader, lighter territory with a tale of sudden sports
success that is not just about winning but also about whether winning is really the point. At the center
of the film’s action, McCarthy chose a sport rarely seen at the movies, yet one close to his heart: high
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