Why is Giamatti's character working at a bar? For a second that made me think that he actually lost his practice, but that wouldn't make sense based on the deal he made with the kid's mom.
Or did he take on another job to earn more? The guy needs 3 jobs to survive? (attorney, coach, and bartender)? I suppose he has a public defender's salary, but that is pretty decent right?
Mike is in private practice and business is slow. He needed the barkeep job to make ends meet. What he did was not illegal but unethical. He still had his practice, but needed extra income.
shareThis was also mentioned as a way for him to make extra cash by his friend Terry or by Mike as a joke, And I think he said something like as a Lawyer, he couldn't do that. Can't remember for sure. It is a tie-in to an earlier part of the film.
Can you fly this plane?
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious,and don't call me Shirley
He still had his practice but things are still tight, so he comes home after law work and suits up for a second job he took to make ends meet, his bartender job.
shareHe works a second job. Third if you count coach.
It represents that he finally took the alternative path to making ends meet -- working...rather than taking Leo's commission.
He needs the extra $1500 a month to pay Kyle's mother, as he promised. That's why he's bartending.
@fortunate1:
The $1500 for Kyle's mother comes from Leo's estate. The bartending is for the money to make ends meet since his practice is slow...
Ah, you're right, Cyra; that makes more sense.
(It's amazing to me, just reading this thread, how many different ways people are interpreting important plot elements in this film.)
Ah, you're right, Cyra; that makes more sense.
(It's amazing to me, just reading this thread, how many different ways people are interpreting important plot elements in this film.)
Thanks for that, slim -you're a real mensch!
You also have to remember that by the end of the movie it is springtime and wrestling season is over. That's why he comes home from work in his lawyer suit and puts on his bartending clothes.
As someone else said also, bartending was mentioned early in the movie about a possible way of earning extra money, before the little "scam" came along.
Either way, it's $1500 that he's not getting anymore that is instead going to Kyle's mom. So it is the equivalent of him paying her.
Nothing you have to say is anywhere near as useful or important as you think it is.
Did I miss that one of the final scenes was of him at his law office? I thought perhaps the bartending job was his new profession because he was no longer allowed to practice law. Remember that one of the last scenes was of him on his way to court to do the right thing and own up to the unethical choice he had made (taking the 1500 commission for the old man). This would, I believe, cause him to be disbarred and no longer able to practice law. But he still "won," by doing the right thing for Kyle and his grandfather. When we see him bartending, that seemed to be his new profession.
There wasn't a scene of Mike at his office, but when he rushes into the house to get changed for his other job, he says he was held up at the office (I think he specified at the office) and his wife says yes, she knows, Shelly (his secretary) called and told her. So he still had his law practice.
In a previous scene, he was on his way to court to admit his unethical behavior, but it was prompted by Kyle's mother's challenge to his guardianship. When she agreed to drop her challenge in exchange for the $1500/month, he didn't have to confess to his misdeeds.
At first glance, that also doesn't sound like the pinnacle of ethical behavior, but think about it. He can't undo putting Leo in the old folks home, but he can do right by him from now on, and he's going to literally pay for his heinous act by not getting the commission he'd otherwise be entitled to for serving as Leo's guardian in the future.
Furthermore, by not admitting to what he did, he actually did everybody a favor because if the judge knew he'd lied, she would have no choice but to remove him as guardian. And since the daughter wouldn't qualify, Leo's guardian would be the State, and the State already admitted they couldn't let Leo live in his own house. So if Mike admitted what he did, Leo would be back in the old folks home.
free hot wings. every bartender gets 'em. and also, they symbolize a metaphor for finally trying to 'lift off' but since hot wings are so small, he can't really. the people in paris call this a 'dénouement'.
🎄Season's Greetings!🎄
This ties into Kyle's "secret" to wrestling ("it's kind of my own thing"). Kyle pretends that his opponent is "pushing my head down, under water, and I'm going to drown unless I do whatever the f#$% it takes to get up."
This is a metaphor for what is happening to Mike Flaherty. His practice is not making money. He needs a water boiler fixed for $6,000 he and his fellow tenant CPA Vig don't have. He has been putting off removing a dangerous tree that may fall and destroy his house (another metaphor). His wrestling team is terrible, undisciplined seems to accept losing. He has been having panic attacks, where he can't breath. This movie is so rich with layers, and I'm still thinking of examples but I'm sure you get the idea.
The past few years have really been a struggle for people like Mike, who have an education, they work hard and love their families, and yet things have changed so fundamentally in the economy that they find themselves very stressed and vulnerable. I see it all around me, and feel the same way sometimes. That is why I like this movie so much; I'm not sure it would have resonated with me even five years ago.
Anyway, Mike has faced up to what he has done. He is going to attend to Leo, give Kyle a healthy and safe home, and send the $1,508 to that awful Kyle's mom who will be back in rehab or worse in no time. But to do all this he has to do "whatever the f#$% it takes." In this case, it means taking an evening job bartending.
P.S. - when Kyle dominated that first opponent, by cleverly discovering his first moves by sandbagging him and then using that knowledge to find a way to win and pin him, he came off the mat and said to Coach Mike and Coach Vig, "He knows I'm a man." Well, now that Mike has taken this bartending job, Mike has found a way to win, and meet all the obligations he has taken on. And no question, Mike is a man.
Like I said, many layers.
Just saw the film, loved it.
He actually says "he knows who I am now" referring to earlier when Mike says that his opponenet doesnt know who he is.
He volunteered as a coach, no $, so he took the bartender job for the money-remember he said to his wife early on, "what am I gonna do, be a bartender?"
shareI'm not positive he volunteered as a coach. In the beginning of the movie, he and Vig are yelling at the team about how they're not getting paid enough to care, or something like that. Which, of course, implies that he is getting paid.
But then again, it could also mean that since he's getting paid nothing, he definitely isn't getting paid enough.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
yea sometime towards the beginning of the movie, Terry mentions to him that he could bartend for extra cash, and he said it sort of toungue-in-cheek, and he responds that he is a lawyer, he isn't going to be a bartender for extra money.
share