There will be two types of people who will see The Way Back and decide to give it a shot. The first is someone who likes watching underdog sports movies, the type where you know the basic structure before you watch it, but still enjoy anyway. The second are people who are more interested in seeing Ben Affleck's performance than the sports movie aspect. Neither type will be disappointed watching this I imagine.
Affleck plays Jack, a former high school basketball star who is down on his luck. He's an alcoholic - to say the least. He's the type of alcoholic who drinks all morning, all day, and all night, and when he wakes up the next morning, he might just finish the warm beer on his dresser. He spends his time working construction and not doing much of anything else besides drinking. He is jolted out of his rut when his former high school offers him a job as the head basketball coach after the previous one had a health scare that caused him to quit. He obviously accepts or there is no movie.
The movie takes great pains to look realistic. The high school basketball aspect is impressively realistic. When he witnesses them practice, they don't look horrible. Without drawing attention to it, there are basketball reasons the team is bad, basketball reasons that a good coach could fix. So when they start winning, it's more believable than most of these type of movies. I can't praise this aspect of the movie enough.
Of course, this movie does follow some of the classic sports movie clichés. Hell, the premise itself is basically a cliché. For some people - the sports movie fans I mentioned above - this is not necessarily a weakness. In fact, when these movies are well done, they'd probably be very happy with result and I don't think this movie is an exception to the rule.
For people interested in Affleck's performance, they will also get what they came for. He's very good in this movie. Most reviews will mention his personal life and honestly I don't know anything about that, but Affleck has turned into a underrated actor in my opinion. He's just an actor that needs the right director to give a good performance.
That director is Gavin O'Connor. O'Connor is very familiar with the sports movie. He was the director of both Miracle and Warrior. He has the credentials in other words. He also directed the pilot of The Americans, a fact none of you will care about, but gives him more bonus points than any movie he might have directed.
The movie also has good performances outside of Affleck. Comedian Al Madrigal is the assistant coach, and while that may make you think he'd provide comic relief, he's there strictly for a dramatic role. The little bit of humor in this movie is mostly provided by the excessive cussing by Affleck in front of a devoutly Catholic, disapproving Father. Janina Gavankar (who I know from The League) and Michaela Watkins both play small parts as the ex-wife and sister, respectively.
I will warn some people here. The basketball aspect of this movie is more like a setting. It still kind of works as a sports movie, but understand that the movie is more focused on the main character. Part of me thinks the movie would have been even more effective had the reasons for his alcoholism not been so clear cut. I'm not going to spoil it because the movie plays it like a surprise and doesn't reveal it for a while. Let's just say you don't blame him, which to me loses a bit of the power of the story. But that's a personal gripe, and most critics don't seem bothered by that.
I realize this review reads like a better movie than the grade I'm ultimately going to give it, which could be a sign that you, general reader, will think higher of this movie than me. And the reason is that, despite all I said, I just can't get over that I thought this was just an average movie. I actually think the one, unfortunately vague complaint I have ended up bothering me more than it will the average viewer. It ends up making the movie feel more manufactured, which is unfortunate because everything else about it feels pretty realistic.
If you're one of the two types of people I described above, absolutely watch this movie. You'll get what you came for. If you're not, I wouldn't go out of my way to watch this movie, but you also won't regret it if you ignore my advice.
2.5/4 stars
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