Ben Affleck effortlessly eases into his role as former Bishop Hayes high school basketball star-turned alcoholic, Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck), in “The Way Back.” When we first see him, he’s drinking a can of beer during his morning shower, then hops on his truck and goes to his construction job with a trusted thermostat filled with vodka and ends his day drunk on a barroom floor at the local watering hole. Jack is an alcoholic. He’s been separated from his now-estranged wife Angela (Janina Gvankar) for close to a year, the dismantling of their marriage happening around the time they lost their 8-year-old son to cancer. Jack couldn’t handle the tragedy, succumbing to drinking to forget about the scars that won’t heal. Then, as this montage filled with Jack’s daily alcoholic activities comes to an end, the film gets right down to business: Jack is given a shot at redemption and offered the coaching job for the pathetic Bishop Hayes high school basketball team. They are 1-10 and haven’t made the playoffs since Jack’s last season as a player in 1994.
If you think you know where Gavin O’Connor’s “The Way Back” is going, then you’re not wrong. The film, a hybrid of the underdog sports genre and the addiction/redemption drama, has familiar beats to its story. How many times have we seen a pathetic coach taking over coaching duties for a pathetic sports team only for them both to get healed by the bond they built over the course of the season?
If “The Way Back” wants to avoid unfamiliar grounds and go by its own narrative rhythms, that’s not what it achieves. In fact, if anything, it’s Affleck who manages to keep things grounded. It’s no coincidence that the film slightly mirrors Affleck’s own highly covered bouts with alcoholism, relapse, and recovery. The actor-writer-director has had a rough few years, so you can see why a film such as this one may have appealed to him at this very moment, but Affleck deserved better than the tepid screenplay O’Connor gives him to play with.
O’Connor knows a thing or two about sports movies (“Miracle”, “Warrior”) and even worked successfully with Affleck on the box-office hit, “The Accountant,” and yet, their latest venture never truly jumps, with effective drama only coming in spurts here. O’Connor’s mixed usage of hand-held and static cam shows up again, but the generic script from Brad Ingelsby (“Out of the Furnace”) would rather pull emotional chords from the viewers instead of subtly playing them. The scenes with Jack and the team hit home the most; the camaraderie, although stilted at first, eventually blossoms and, predictably, the team starts winning again, but not without Jack having to better himself in the process. Dan (Al Madrigal), the assistant coach at Hayes, tries to help Jack deal with his temper and lack of respect for the coach’s office, where he doesn’t even bother to hide the beer cans in his office. It’s only when O’Connor and Ingelsby tackle the resentment that Jack feels for his family, wife, and friends that the film hits its falsest notes. Although well-intentioned, Jack’s crumbling personal life is never as interesting as what’s happening between player and coach.
Affleck, working with a young cast of mostly unknowns, seems more at ease sharing scenes with them than anybody else. Melvin Gregg excels as the showboater of the group, ditto Will Roop as a cheerleader skirt-chaser, and Brandon Wilson as the timid but most talented player on the team. Jack’s transformation seems to happen on the sidelines, as he grows from temper-induced alcoholic to confident, sober and motivated basketball coach. Affleck digs deep in “The Way Back.” Compared to some of his recent work, his acting here feels effortlessly restrained and, for obvious reasons, deeply personal. Too bad the movie itself, filled with familiar beats, can’t live up to Affleck’s passionate delivery. [C+]