The Way Back (2020)

[StevePulaski]

The Way Back (2020)
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor

Coach Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) gives a pep talk to one of his players (Melvin Gregg) in The Way Back.

Rating: ★★½

The Ben Affleck in Gavin O'Connor's The Way Back is not the Ben Affleck you're used to seeing. He looks bloated. His skin is clammy. You can almost faintly smell the stench of cheap beer emanating from him whenever he's on screen. It's a role almost too close to home for Affleck, who has had a well-documented history of alcoholism, with several stints in rehab finally culminating with a publicized relapse in 2019. All of this should loan itself to a deeply introspective, moving film. Like a buzzer beater than wasn't meant to be, however, when it's time to close, The Way Back bricks it.

Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a former basketball prodigy who stepped away from the game after high school and entered adulthood a broken soul. Following his separation from his wife Angela (Janina Gavankar, The Morning Show), he works manual labor and spends most evenings drinking until he blacks out, be it at the bar or in his own abode. His sister (Michaela Watkins, The New Adventures of Old Christine) expresses concern for his wellbeing at Thanksgiving, but he angrily retorts and insists he's fine. As you can assume, Jack is haunted by other demons besides his failed marriage that come to a head later in the film.

When the head basketball coach at his Catholic alma mater suffers a heart attack, the school offers Jack the job alongside the even-keel assistant coach/math teacher Dan (Al Madrigal, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart). The team has been the pits since Jack graduated, but he accepts the gig in hopes to instill toughness in his players and help the days pass quicker so he can arrive at the drinking hours late at night. Jack's temper doesn't sit well with team chaplain Father Mark (Jeremy Radin), but with time, they begin to win a few games after a streak of 20-30 point blowouts. All while Jack sneaks booze into his thermos and casually drinks while watching game film.

Things boil over when the team entertains the possibility of making the playoffs for the first time in a blue moon. Yet just as the potential for redemption for both the players and Jack is in view, things spiral, and Jack slowly realizes that nightly binges won't suppress the unchecked grief and pain he's been experiencing for years.

O'Connor directed Miracle and Warrior, two films that have gone on to be canonical works for hockey and MMA, respectively. On top of his prowess of choreographing in-game action, O'Connor's sports films are best characterized for their vividness in depicting the humans behind the game. Affleck is the film's rock, and his portrayal of Jack's drunken stupors and fiery attitude on the court remind us why he's such a strong performer. He finds the right line in making Jack unlikable yet an interesting type of character we don't often see committed to film in such a realistic way. There are millions like Jack: laborers who live day-to-day doing grunt work in the afternoon and lifting their elbows at the local gin-mill at nightfall. Their hardened masculine shells ostensibly prevents them from an opportunity at introspection until it's too late, and screenwriter Brad Ingelsby paints Jack as one of the lucky ones insofar that he gets an opportunity for self-examination.

It was difficult for me to discern what was "off," so to speak, about The Way Back while watching it. Starting with the minor, the sound mixing of the dialog is occasionally wonky, rendering it too hushed at times (a third act hospital scene) or completely cacophonous (the basketball games where crowd noise in an echo-ridden gym drones out some of the in-game conversations). Furthermore, while this is Jack's story of redemption, the humanization of the players feels too familiar; a gripe I also had with Miracle. We get the shy point guard who becomes the team captain despite his father's quiet disapproval of his son's involvement with the team, a plot-thread that is rendered inert once Jack's troubles prove inescapable. We get the loudmouth who is booted off the team only to be allowed back on the court with his tail between his legs. And we get a lot of other faceless teens whose purpose exists only to makeup a starting five and a full bench.

When the story does focus on Jack's healthier path forward, it feels like an afterthought. It comes at a point in the story where it should serve as a whole new beginning, but it's rendered hectic by the overuse of montages and unsatisfying thanks to maudlin music choices. Another 20 minutes might've provided better context, but Ingelsby's story goes from thoughtfully characterized to efficient for the sake of runtime in what feels like a missed opportunity for more of the tender humanization O'Connor has proven to handle extremely well.

The Way Back has been intensely marketed in America alongside Affleck's public appearances discussing his alcoholism and subsequent stints in rehab. Affleck's ex-wife, Jennifer Garner, even stepped in to assure the project continued while he was seeking treatment, knowing how cathartic the experience had been for her former partner up until his relapse. You can't find authentic pathos like that very often, and similarly, you can't find truly great sports films as frequently either. The Way Back is stuck in the middle, but if the right audience finds it, it could be a motivational tale for people like Jack. I tend to be an optimist with these things, so I'll rest easy if I can assume that's its legacy. In that case, shortcomings be damned.

Starring: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Michaela Watkins, Janina Gavankar, Glynn Turman, and Melvin Gregg. Directed by: Gavin O'Connor.