Mike Flaherty is an averagely nice, slightly-downtrodden middle aged man (played by Paul Giamatti, a averagely nice, slightly-downtrodden middle aged man). His attorney's practice is not doing that well, as he is just too bloody averagely nice to take on the big earning hard-nosed cases. After work he coaches a high school wrestling team. They're as rubbish as his attorney's practice. Mike's life kinda sucks.After a failed search for elderly client Leo's estranged daughter, and ever building stress from his dire finances, Mike decides to take legal responsibility for Leo (Paulie from Rocky! YEAH!) - after finding out his guardian will be paid $1500 a month from Leo's estate. Mike pops Leo into a home, with a view to check on him every now and again... et voilà, easy money. That is, until Leo's long lost grandson Kyle turns up. He's got bleached hair, tattoos, and he smokes. His mum is in rehab and Leo's in a home. Mike and his family let Kyle stay the night. Then that becomes two nights, then a week. Mike takes Kyle to a wrestling practise one afternoon. And it turns out Kyle kicks ASS.
It's all going swimmingly, Kyle has injected some excitement into Mike's life. Mike and his family have injected some security and happiness into Kyle's life. Leo's a bit sad about being in the old peoples home but oh well... he's a bit old and bonkers, and sure, Mike is supposed to let Leo move home if he likes, but that's a lot of work, so nevermind... OOPs - here comes Kyle's drug riddled mum. She wants Kyle back, but most of all she wants Leo's money and threatens to expose Mike's unethical actions as Leo's guardian. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!
There's some slight cheeseball moments (for example, the weakest boy on the wrestling team is scared of his opponent because he looks like Darth Vader, Kyle's response "If he's Darth Vader, you're the Secret Apprentice". Bleurgh) but lots of potential cliches were avoided (oooh, if Kyle wins this match, he may get spotted for a college scholarship!!... oh wait, he f*cked it up). This is an enjoyable, feel-good film with some nice silly moments. Lovely.
