This is a gem of a little film, which I thought was going to be solely about a wrestling coach and team, but it turns out to dwell more on family issues. The wrestling sort of comes in later. It’s about a small-time lawyer and high school wrestling coach (played by Paul Giamatti) who makes the dubious decision for financial reasons of taking on the guardianship of a elderly client whose grandson, an excellent wrestler, he stumbles upon after the kid winds up at his grandfather’s. But with his grandfather in a nursing home and his mother in drug rehab, the kid ends up living with the coach’s family and joining the wrestling team. All seem to be winning in this arrangement, until the mother shows up out of rehab and things begin to unravel.
Giamatti, of course is wonderful just as he was in “Barney’s Version,” and makes a good team with Amy Ryan as his wife, who recently played Michael Scott’s love on “The Office.” It is an endearing film that sneaks up on you and gets under your skin. It’s funny at times and also a drama about the family and what will happen to the boy on and off the mat.
