The Way Back

The Way Back (2020) is a return to form for Ben Affleck following an aimless second half of the previous decade – specifically his ill-advised stint in the DC Universe. In this drama directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Brad Ingelsby (co-writer of the excellent Out of the Furnace), Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a former high school star basketball player turned alcoholic construction worker who reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his alma mater. How do we know he's an alcoholic? Well, drinking beer in the shower is certainly not a good sign (and there are many others), but it’s mostly Affleck, who not only looks and sounds but for all intents and purposes is the part, turning in a cathartic, demon-exorcising performance. The central portion of the film is by design an abridged version of every high school basketball movie ever made. It’s done competently, with a knowledge of and appreciation for the game of hoops, as well as a sense of humor, but it’s nevertheless an afterthought; it would also be a foregone conclusion, if the script had actually been leading up all along to that buzzer-beating, game-winning, hail Mary shot that shortly segues into a freeze frame of Jack’s triumphantly grinning mug. Its Cinderella story – minus the fairytale happy ending – seems taken right out of many a Hollywood melodrama (because it actually is), but TWB is not – regardless of what All Movie or IMDb may tell you – a sports movie, nor is it about basketball like Hoosiers, or about inner city kids like Coach Carter; its scenes of on-court action and sideline banter, deftly choreographed and zestfully written and delivered but offering little new (other than comically pairing the Foulmouthed Coach with the catholic high school’s “team chaplain”), exist solely to make a point – and a very well made and well taken point it is. This narrative shorthand serves an overarching character study into which the filmmakers have put quite a lot more thought and work, revolving around a man who seemingly drinks just for the sake of getting drunk, and then gradually pulling back to reveal the underlying causes for, and consequences of, his alcoholism. It is said that hitting rock bottom is the beginning of the road to recovery, and the film uses basketball to pull Jack up, push him farther down, and ultimately pull him back up again.