Affleck is true champ in worthwhile basketball drama
Remember the “Sad Ben Affleck” meme that was circulating a few years ago? Maybe you thought to yourself, “Hmmm… that would make a great film. Especially if it were combined with an underdog high school basketball movie like Hoosiers.” Well, sorry to say, but director Gavin O’Connor has beat you to it in his new Affleck-helmed picture The Way Back. But you know what? All kidding aside, despite a few flaws, the movie actually works, and Affleck delivers what’s easily a career best performance.
O’Connor previously directed Affleck in 2016’s The Accountant, but the duo must have learned from that misstep, as this new collaboration is far better. O’Connor also directed the Kurt Russell 2004 inspirational hockey tale Miracle, so he’s got a feel for the type of stirring sports movies audiences like. Working from a script co-written with Brad Ingelsby, who can do grim in his sleep (American Woman; Out of the Furnace), O’Connor has thus managed to combine the best of an uplifting sports story with the sort of bleak character study that is Ingelsby’s forte.
Here, O’Connor and Ingelsby give us Jack Cunningham (Affleck), a former Los Angeles-area high school basketball star who forgoes a full ride to powerhouse Kansas for a blue-collar life of construction work, getting smashed at the local bar, and drinking as a daily hobby. Jack’s alcoholism is made evident in series of shots that show Jack drinking beer in the shower, pouring whiskey in his thermos at work (never mind he’s using heavy machinery), and returning home to a dinner of frozen food and the two-dozen beers in his fridge. Affleck has no vanity in this role; Jack is paunchy, bloated, and haggard, and deeply in denial about his addiction. Jack angrily dismisses both his worried sister Beth (Michaela Watkins) and his estranged wife Angela (Janina Gavankar) when they share their concerns with him.
A small sign of hope that things might change comes when Jack reluctantly agrees — seemingly out of guilt — to become the head coach for the boys’ basketball team at his alma mater, a Catholic high school that saw its basketball glory days end after Jack graduated over twenty years ago. The clichés in such a premise are inescapable, and Ingelsby and O’Connor can’t help but succumb to a few of them, including a couple of weirdly placed ’70s style slow-mo freeze frame shots. And of course the underpopulated team is made up of the usual ragtag group of misfits, including the showboating arrogant team captain whose bravado masks underlying insecurity, and the painfully shy kid who’s actually the best on the team, but whose father doesn’t support his passion. Then there’s the inevitable match up against the fancy, snobby rich school that everyone hates, culminating, as all movies like this are required to, with the Big Championship Game that no one even thought the scrappy team could get to in the first place.
But don’t despair. Just when you think you know where the film is headed, O’Connor and Ingelsby take the story in a completely unexpected direction, which is what saves this picture from being just another against-all-odds, Hoosiers-like redemption story. The backstory of both Jack’s separation from his wife and his alcoholism is revealed in a way that, instead of being heavy handed, is genuinely moving.
Affleck, whose off screen struggles with divorce, substance abuse, and rehab have been tabloid fodder, is outstanding in these scenes, and he brings a raw emotional authenticity that you can’t imagine coming from another actor. Watch Affleck in a scene where he talks with Angela about painful moments from their past. The look on his face and in his eyes is haunted, regretful, and grieving all at the same time, and the line between performance and reality blurs. A similar scene, in which Jack flees an uncomfortable situation, is heartbreakingly real, as we understand Jack’s pain, while also wishing for a different outcome.
Affleck is the heavy-hitter here, but the supporting cast also elevates the movie. Gavankar holds her own with Affleck, creating a complicated character out of a small role that could have been one-note. Al Madrigal, as the team’s assistant coach, has a nice rapport with Affleck, as the two come to respect each other, even as Madrigal’s Coach Dan begins to realize the extent of Jack’s drinking problem. And the young actor Brandon Wilson, as the shy kid who comes into his own despite family responsibilities, has an easy naturalness that hopefully will lend itself to bigger roles and a long career.
With so much to be anxious about in the news today, what with the Coronavirus scare and the recent election results (which, ahem, maybe didn’t go the way you hoped), you might be wondering why you should see a movie about a down-and-out former basketball whiz and a down-and-out high school basketball team. I’ll tell you why:
#1 – Theaters need you, and a lot of them are taking precautions to keep you safe, like the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley. Go out! Support local movie theaters and the arts. Just wash your hands!
#2 – Most of all, this movie is worth your time, not just for Affleck’s stunning performance, but also because it has a much needed message of empathy and hope. As Jack’s therapist tells him at one point, “We can’t change the past. What we can do is change how we move forward.” Maybe you’ve suffered great loss or great tragedy, the film tells us, but the possibility of finding A Way Back to happiness always exists.
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The Way Back opens today at Bay Area theaters.
