Four stars. Rated R, for frequent profanity
By Derrick Bang
Well-crafted underdog sagas are can’t-miss cinema.
Redemption sagas are even better.
This film deftly blends the two, with inspiring results.
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| Former basketball great Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck, right) initially finds little to love when confronted with the lackadaisical members of the Bishop Hayes High School team; even so, he soon spots untapped potential in some of the squad members. |
Director Gavin O’Connor has an affinity for such material, having previously helmed 2004’s Miracle and 2011’s Warrior; just as crucially, he has an eye and ear for the interpersonal dynamics of people under stress. Given that The Way Back dives deep into the self-destructive anger that arises from unfathomable anguish, O’Connor and co-scripter Brad Ingelsby are blessed by a stand-out performance from star Ben Affleck.
Jack Cunningham (Affleck) works heavy construction by day, just this side of somnambulance after having collapsed into bed, dead drunk, each previous night. He consumes a case of beer during dinner, spends the rest of every evening at his favorite dive bar — where it obviously isn’t good that “everybody knows his name” — and by day conceals straight vodka in his stainless steel travel mug.
He’s taciturn, withdrawn and quick to anger: a barely functioning, late-stage alcoholic.
Family gatherings are tense, more so because of the hostility radiating from his sister, Beth (Michaela Watkins). She’s brittle and critical, neither of which ameliorates the dynamic; we sense her lack of patience results — in part — from long-simmering sibling rivalry. At the same time, we cannot miss the pain in Watkins’ gaze; Beth nonetheless loves her brother, and chafes at her inability to help.
O’Connor and Ingelsby are patient; answers do come, but only eventually and organically, as situations evolve.
Absent some sort of intervention, Jack is on course to drink himself to death. Then, unexpectedly, the fateful phone call: from Bishop Hayes High School, where — 25 years earlier — he was a basketball phenom granted a full university scholarship. Father Edward Devine (John Aylward, making the most of his congenial gruffness) is in desperate need of a replacement basketball coach.
Remembering Jack’s glory days, and unaware of the mess he’s made of his life since then, Father Devine offers him the job.
