By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

No one plays a flawed character quite like Paul Giamatti.

Giamaitti has made a career out of playing guys that are likable, well maybe at least slightly likable, in a long line of films that include American Splendor  and Sideways.

Giamatti is back in familiar territory in Win Win, playing a New Jersey attorney who is drowning in debt, so he isn't quite as honest as he should be.

His latest scheme to keep his head above water, and keep his family from getting kicked out of their home, is to become the steward of an older, sometimes forgetful client (Burt Young), just so he can make some money off of him.

But his plans go awry when the old man's runaway teenaged grandson, a youngster named Kyle, shows up looking for his grandfather.

Writer/director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) has fashioned a nicely told story that you can't help but like.

Mike (the attorney) is basically a good guy. He even  coaches the high school wrestling team (they are really bad) in his spare time. This is, after all, a sports movie, at least in name.

Feeling guilty about the old man's situation, Mike lets the kid (played by newcomer Alex Shaffer) move in with his family temporarily. But when he takes him to wrestling practice, he finds that his young boarder was actually a wrestling champ at his old high school. He enrolls in school, joins the team and soon is inspiring his teammates to do something they have never done before — win.

The feel-good and win-win feeling of the movie goes beyond that of course, as Mike and his wife (played by Amy Ryan) become Kyle's biggest supporter, especially after his loser mother shows up to reclaim him.

On the surface, Win Win would appear to be just another Lifetime kind of movie, but with its top-notch cast, and carefully crafted script, it is much more successful than that.

Win Win is playing in Central Florida on a limited release.

Critic's rating: B+

Rated R