The Way Back (2020) Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Ben Affleck, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, the damned thing was hardly original as it faithfully followed the rules of the genre. Indeed, you had a washed-up guy who begrudgingly accepted to become a high-school basketball coach and, of course, at first, they suck terribly but, slowly, they became better and eventually made it to the playoffs. So, it was all fairly generic and predictable and, yet, it still worked for me. Indeed, what made this movie still intriguing was its relentless dark undercurrent. And, of course, it took some major guts from Ben Affleck to tackle such a part. Indeed, Affleck is himself a recovering alcoholic and the last time he went in rehab was only a few years back. Seriously, I wonder how it felt for him to play a guy who was basically drinking the whole day. The interesting thing about this portrayal was, often, such addicts hide their drinking but not this guy. Everywhere he went, he was drinking and pretty much everybody knew about it. Basically, at this point, this guy hated life in general, hated himself even more and, in the process, you did get to see how completely joyless the whole process was. Basically, it is all about numbing your senses and feelings. Eventually, there was such a deep sadness in Affleck’s performance, he was completely convincing and probably delivered the best performance of his career. You wonder if they maybe could have found some time to develop the other characters, it was basically a one-man-show from Affleck but since he really nailed it, it wasn’t a big issue. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was nothing ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.