The Way Back - review

There’s no easy way to talk about your deepest, darkest problems; to do it in a very public fashion must be damn near impossible, but that’s what Ben Affleck is attempting in The Way Back, which sees him re-teaming with Accountant director Gavin O’Connor. It’s a film about a man struggling with alcoholism, something Affleck has had unfortunately well know issues with, and he must be commended for being willing to lay it all out there for this sombre and touching basketball movie.

Yes, basketball movie. Affleck’s Jack Cunningham is hired to coach the high school team he used to be the star of, but in order to do so he needs to get control of his own rapidly spiralling life, in which he drowns his crushing sorrows with a never ending stream of booze. As is customary with these kinds of stories (think Coach Carter, for example) the teams various players also have exactly one big life lesson they each need to learn, not just to excel on the court, but to excel in the game of life.   

It’s not quite as corny as it all sounds, but it will certainly help if you, like me, have a fondness for this specific type of hoops related melodrama. It also helps that O’Connor stays just far enough away from sports clichés, never letting the games feel too grandiose, as if winning will solve every problem and heal every wound. In fact there is an impressive commitment to the one-small-excruciating-step-at-a-time recovery process for people with demons they can’t bring themselves to face.  

To wit, Affleck has fantastic presence as a mumbling, sweaty, hangdog, shell of man, finding genuine pathos without doing too much or begging for your sympathy. Having let go of a life, a marriage and several friendships, he drinks for lack of anything else to be interested in, trying to stave of the midlife regrets that start piling up for all of us at a certain point. It’s as real and raw a performance as Affleck has given in nearly ten years, with a muted, defeated quality that ripples across the whole film, keeping any of it from feeling overbearing.

O’Connor’s direction is also pretty spot on, shooting a lot of the early dinking scenes with a soft focus and bight backlight, making bars and kitchens feel eerily familiar to the many generic beer commercials that play between real life basketball games. At times it almost looks like a Budweiser logo is about to pop up, except no one looks particularly happy and there are one (or more) too many empty cans scattered on tables. The basketball scenes are also well done, with a natural feel and intuitive immersion that’s often very tricky to pull off.  

It’s ultimately impossible to say how much Affleck’s real life bled into The Way Back, but the result is something that feels emotionally honest and finds powerful truth in both it’s on and off court narratives. This is no typical Hollywood affair, generalising and patronising an audience with trite life guidance. Instead we see the struggle, the humbling, and ultimately the glimmer of hope for one man on a very bumpy and difficult journey towards self-improvement. I wish him all the best.