Win Win appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The image looked fine most of the time.
Sharpness was usually good. Some shots demonstrated a bit of softness and fuzziness, but they remained reasonably infrequent. While the picture rarely appeared terrifically concise, it normally demonstrated solid clarity. No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and the presentation lacked edge haloes. In terms of source defects, I witnessed no specks, marks or other issues; the Blu-ray gave us a clean transfer.
The film went with a subdued palette that looked fine. Colors never exactly popped off the screen, but overall, they were reasonably accurate. Blacks appeared dark and dense, while shadows showed decent clarity. Other than a few slightly soft shots, this was a strong presentation.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it remained pretty low-key. General ambience ruled the day, as little more exciting than that appeared. Wrestling shots offered decent breadth, and music spread well to the side speakers. Nonetheless, nothing especially lively popped up here.
Audio quality seemed acceptable. Speech appeared natural and concise, as the lines always remained intelligible. Music seemed full and rich, while effects showed good accuracy. Nothing here stood out as particularly memorable, but the track was fine for a film of this sort.
We get a small collection of extras here. Two Deleted Scenes run a total of one minute, 46 seconds. We see “Mike Meets with Mrs. Tedesco” (1:13) and “Family and Leo Drive to Courthouse” (0:33). “Tedesco” shows a little more of Mike’s legal work, and “Drive” offers a minor connector for a scene late in the movie. Neither add anything of substance or real interest.
Four featurettes follow. Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni Discuss Win Win lasts six minutes, 28 seconds and offers notes from writer/director McCarthy and writer Tiboni. They discuss the project’s roots and development, story and characters, autobiographical elements, casting, locations, and a few other elements. The piece moves quickly and lacks much depth, but longtime friends McCarthy and Tiboni interact well and deliver enough good information to make this an efficient show.
Next comes the two-minute, 27-second David Thompson at Sundance 2011. In it, the young actor chats about… well, not much. We follow him around the festival and hear some soundbites. It’s breezy but insubstantial.
In Conversation with Tom McCarthy and Paul Giamatti at Sundance 2011 goes for two minutes, 26 seconds and delivers notes from the writer/director and the actor. They discuss basics about the movie and Giamatti’s role/performance. It’s a short, superficial reel.
Finally, Family fills two minutes, 24 seconds. It includes notes from Giamatti, McCarthy, and actors Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Melanie Lynskey and Alex Shaffer. It never becomes anything more than a glorified trailer.
The disc opens with ads for Tree of Life, Another Earth, Skateland and Henry’s Crime. We also find the trailer for Win and a music video for “Think You Can Wait” from The National. It combines lip-synch performance with movie clips. Actually, it’s unusual in that it offers a lot of bloopers and shots from the set. That makes it unconventional for a music video, but it’s still not especially interesting.
Inconsistent but occasionally interesting, Win Win gives us a reasonably enjoyable movie. Though it lacks the narrative consistency to make it a strong film, it comes with a good cast and a moderately interesting tale. The Blu-ray provides very good picture, acceptable audio and a small set of supplements. If you like the actors, this looks like a rental.