Directed by: Gavin O' Connor
Starring: Ben Affleck, Janina Gavankar, Brandon Wilson, Al Madrigal, Michaela Watkins
Watching the trailer, you assume you know the path The Way Back will take: Alcoholic gets a shot at redemption by coaching an underachieving high school basketball team. Hoosiers meets Any Movie About Alcoholics. The coach will defeat alcoholism by leading his team of misfits to the state finals. But thankfully, The Way Back is more perceptive than that. For Jack Cunningham (Affleck), basketball can only take him so far in his quest. Jack's battles with the bottle encompass far deeper issues, and a few wins by the Bishop Hayes basketball team won't fix them.
Jack could almost be Affleck's Chuckie from Good Will Hunting fast forwarded twenty years. Remember when Chuckie said, "I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and I'll be fifty,"? Well, here it is, or darn close to it. Jack is a construction worker by day and drinks himself into oblivion nightly at a local bar. He is helped up the steps to his bed every night. After a testy Thanksgiving dinner with his sister (Watkins), who worries about Jack's drinking and failed marriage, Jack is contacted by his former high school where he is a basketball legend. Would he like to coach the team which hasn't been to the playoffs since his playing days? After downing what looks like a case of beer from his fridge, Jack takes the job.
His team isn't untalented, but needs a coach who can utilize their skillset to produce wins. Jack finds the formula, and Bishop Hayes starts winning some games. Jack even stops drinking for a bit, but as his sad past is slowly revealed, which includes the death of his eight-year-old son from cancer, we know as surely as night follows day that Jack's battles aren't over. We wait for what will trigger him to start visiting the local bar again. One night in particular has terrible consequences for him.
Until that point, The Way Back follows the sports formula successfully, while not being as emotionally satisfying as O' Connor's Miracle or Warrior. The final thirty minutes takes us on an unexpected detour which flies in the face of convention. It is difficult not to compare The Way Back to Affleck's real life troubles. How closely Affleck mirrors Jack Cunningham is known only to Affleck himself and his loved ones, but the Affleck performance is courageous and all the more powerful because he holds everything close to the vest. All of Jack's pain and anger is written on his face. He's a ticking time bomb and the suspense lies on when, not if, it will explode.
Those who walk into The Way Back expecting a Big Game finale which comes down to the final shot and swelling music accompaniment will be disappointed. There is someone shooting a basketball in the movie's closing moments, but those shots mean so much more because we've taken the journey with the person who is draining threes.
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