Shea Wigham does a very good job as the weary social worker who really cares about the hard luck cases he counsels, mostly women with children who have a difficult time staying stable. He's a former boxer who lost his way in life, a father who abandoned him and his mother when he was younger and tried to channel his energy as a boxer robbed of a good chance at success into helping others.
Olivia Munn is the damsel in distress who can't help herself, especially when her husband (or ex) is released from jail and comes home... but still wants to pull of jobs with his old boss, Frank Grillo (who is rarely in the film.)
The problem with this film is that it doesn't really go anywhere much of the time. It's meant to be a long character study but even that isn't so revealing. He has a conflict with his old man and it's nothing we haven't seen a million times. Dad, I resent you, won't ever ask anything from you, etc. Etc.
Olivia Munn plays the most inept mother on the planet. Wigham tries to help her and keep her job, child, stability but she resents him. Olivia's ex comes back and danger and jealousy and suspicion is about.
This should have been a much, much better film. The acting is actually quite good - from all but Munn who just doesn't sell the role, perhaps it is the script which makes her into an inconsiderate blubberer all the time. It fails for the most part as a character study as there is only a limited look into what drives this man to be a social worker and a twist that happens is incredibly lame and feels like a forced plot device. And in the end, the movie goes where many predictable films go where the writer wants you to go "Oh.... wow man... that's deep. That's heavy and an emotional hit" and it really isn't. The very ending is also intended to be clever and i could see where it was going but, it too, was a little too unnatural in the attempt to be cute and clever.
This is not a terrible movie and Wigham is very good in his character. Like others say, unfortunately, it just doesn't really go anywhere and is just a simple story of the reformed loser who tries his hardest to go the extra mile to help out this one irritating woman and her son so they can stay together and protected from her dangerous ex. That's it.
