The Way Back

 Charles Lott Jr., Ben Affleck, and Al Madrigal in The Way Back. Warner Bros.

I like watching Ben Affleck perform. He features a little bit of an old-school film star quality about him, taking over space on the screen, drawing your eye wherever he goes. He’s an enormous man, and when he emotes, you'll feel the energy vibrating off of him. the standard of his movies has varied wildly over the past few years (and his last film, The Accountant, directed, like this film, by Gavin O’Connor, was actively bad), but he has that particular quality that marks out a film star — regardless of who he’s playing, you don’t forget you’re watching Ben Affleck perform.

But for years, the off-screen Affleck has overtaken the on-screen one, fodder for tabloid gossip (largely about his addictions and disintegrating marriage to Jennifer Garner) and “Sadfleck” memes that furnished a public narrative for personal turmoil. the matter with being a star is that if people are brooding about you while you’re acting, they’re bringing all of your baggage into watching your movie.


That’s why The Way Back looks like the foremost appropriate vehicle for Affleck now as he fights his answer of what looks like some serious darkness in his own life. (The tagline on the movie’s posters is, unsubtly, “One shot for a second chance.”) The movie works quite well on its own, understated and willing to embody genre tropes while quietly subverting them. But Affleck’s history brings the story — of a grieving alcoholic trying to return back from the brink — both emotional heft and a sort of trustworthiness.

The Way Back starts out as a sports movie

Charles Lott Jr., Ben Affleck, and Al Madrigal in The Way Back. 

Warner Bros.

 Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star with strong prospects and a full ride to play college hoops. Now he’s a middle-aged hard hat and a raging (but relatively high-functioning) alcoholic. He hides booze on the work, keeps a beer within the shower, pounds can after can when he gets home in the dark, and has mostly cut himself faraway from people — except his buddies down at the bar, who find yourself having to steer him home more nights than not.

At the beginning of The Way Back, the explanations for his addiction seem to be somewhat obvious: He and his wife (Janina Gavankar) split a year and a half earlier, and it sent him spiraling. But The Way Back isn’t quite as simple as that, and because the story unspools, so does Jack’s full backstory. It’s rarely only one thing that drives an individual to addiction; a lifelong pile-up of pain drives Jack.


But it takes a short time for those details to leak. Jack is closed off and unrevealing, and therefore the movie tracks together with his spirit. This is why, rather than diving straight into his trauma, The Way Back first sets itself up as a sports movie. Jack gets a call from the priest responsible for his former high school who asks him to step in as coach for the flailing team after the previous coach’s health problems take him out of the work.

Why Jack came to mind isn’t entirely clear, neither is it obvious why anyone thought a former star player would necessarily be an excellent coach. But the team is desperate. Jack is equally wanting to refuse — for reasons that take an extended time to become clear — but eventually, he relents and agrees to require the work.
The team is ragtag and undisciplined, faraway from Jack’s glory days within the mid-90s, but in typical sports-movie fashion, he whips them into shape (with tons of accompanying profanity, to the team chaplain’s horror), and that they finally start winning.

At now, it’s easy to imagine The Way Back slipping into the straightforward grooves of a sports film, crossed a touch with the “magical teacher” genre, especially since Jack is white and most of the team isn't. The team starts winning, the coach learns the maximum amount from the youngsters as they learn from him, somebody gets a scholarship, Jack confronts his demons. we all know this outline.

But The Way Back never gets too comfortable in one place, and each time it feels as if it'd be slipping into cliche, it half-twists into something new. The Way Back maybe a movie about a lover who happens to teach high school basketball, and therefore the latter never overtakes the previous. (In a telling move, we watch the lead-up to the primary game but skip the sport entirely, just showing the ultimate score. this is often not, the film reminds us, a story about the healing power of sports.) Sometimes the buildup of misery in Jack’s past starts to desire an excessive amount of, as if it’s contrived; but, it’s all well within the range of the possible, and therefore the build-up of tragedy reminds us that Jack’s addiction likely didn’t originate out of anywhere; it’s a learned behavior with an extended, long tail.

The Way Back is an adult drama about redemption but without any cliches:

Ben Affleck in The Way Back. 

Warner Bros.

 
As with last year’s Waves, it’s remarkable to notice how The Way Back most closely resembles the “redemption” narratives that are familiar in inspirational films — and particularly wildly successful Christian films — but steps faraway from those films’ easy answers. Too often the genre is averse to depicting just how dark and broken people can become. and positively, the extent of alcoholism and salty language within the Way Back disqualifies it instantly for the Christian movie genre, despite the various prayers and a couple of religious discussions.

But The Way Back isn’t just a redemption story; it’s also marked by an uneasiness with the thought that there’s some simple path out of hell for Jack or anyone like him. Life doesn’t get easier for him, the pain doesn’t get away, and therefore the things he wants fixing aren’t getting to resolve themselves. But something has shifted inside him. He’s stepped onto a road that's leading somewhere.


Meanwhile, as Jack is forced deeper into past hurts he’s tried to bury, Affleck’s performance gets more and rawer. He always seems to get on the verge of tears and explosion. At one key moment, when he’s been delivered to a verge of collapse, you'll sense the volcano inside that’s propelling him toward destruction. it's painful to observe.

This is familiar territory for director O’Connor, who despite flubbing The Accountant has proven himself capable, in movies like Warrior and Miracle, of craving both a compelling sports drama and exploring something interesting about how men are taught — then need to relearn — the way to affect challenge and grief and relationships.

The Way Back feels more mature than those films, little question due partly to Affleck’s performance. It hearkens back to the type of original mid-budget films that were rampant in Hollywood within the 1990s, serious dramas for adults that aren’t necessarily looking for awards-season glory. Movies like this one are just trying to find an audience with whom they’ll resonate.

And the seriousness of The Way Back — its unwillingness to require the straightforward road, and Affleck’s total commitment to letting his personal rawness inform performed pain — should ensure those audiences find what they’re trying to find.

• THE WAY BACK ★★★
• (3/4 stars)
• Directed by: Gavin O’Connor
• Written by: Brad Ingelsby
• Starring: Ben Affleck, Janina Gavenkar, Michaela Watkins and Al Madrigal
• Running time: 108 mins.

The Way Back opens in theaters on March 6.