This one got me in the emotions. The Way Back, directed by Gavin O’Connor tells the story of Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck), a former high school basketball star whose life has fallen apart and he is now a separated alcoholic who erodes all the relationships he comes into contact with.
I can relate to many parts of Jack’s story. Having played basketball at high school in the US and then going on to get a scholarship at University over there, then ultimately getting injured before I turned pro, a lot of the moments rang true for me.
I wonder if the film resonated for me because of my background or if those emotional moments moved other people in the audience. This story looks ostensibly like a basketball story but it’s the story of a man unable to grieve and deal with the emotions of losing his son.
Jack gets asked to coach his former high school team, which forces him on a path to having to interact with young men and be a positive role model for them. There are some genuinely funny scenes when the team’s chaplain looks on as Jack swears blue murder at the boys after they have made a mistake on the court (Coaches in the US are crazy, see above.)
The film crosses back and forwards between Jack’s life as a basketball coach and the dynamic of him and his wife Angela (Janina Gavankar) going through a separation. These transitions don’t always work successfully. There are sometimes hard tonal shifts between scenes which take you out of the story.
One thing, which is a pet peeve of mine and most people won’t notice, is that the scenes of the basketball games don’t work from a basketball perspective. Maybe no one notices but when the player dribbling the ball in one shot is a different person in the next it feels weird to me.
The film could have gone down the cliched person-overcomes-struggle-to-lead-the-team-to-victory plotline but made some interesting choices to break up that expectation; some more successful than others. It felt at one point that the film was going to end but then it carried on, luckily not to the extent Lord of the Rings did.
Is it the best movie of the year, no, but it had some really moving and emotional moments. The performances were great and the cinema definitely passed the sitting still test. You can hear people moving in their seats when they are bored.
Affleck was great in this role, the grief, the frustration, the alcoholism. With his past, he had a lot of material to work with (his public divorce and rehab for alcohol addiction) and it felt like he was using this role to work out some of that personal stuff. Hopefully, it helped him come out the other side healthier.
If you or someone you care about is suffering from alcohol addiction please go here for more information.
5th March 2020
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe