For all of you naysayers who maintain that you’ve had enough movies about underdog sports teams that somehow rise up against adversity and beat the odds ... that’s not really what this film is about. Neither is it all about an adult who’s fighting personal demons and manages to find himself after circumstances lead to him working together with some needy kids.
Well, OK, both of those scenarios are exactly what “The Way Back” is about, but the story is presented in a way that makes the cliché of the constantly losing team of less interest or importance than the story of the adult who is affected by the kids on it.
He’s Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck), a former basketball star who can’t figure out why his life and seemingly the whole world have collapsed around. He toils away at a thankless construction job, he and his wife are separated, and the only companionship he can find is at the local bar every night, where he and his pals get hammered. On top of that, he’s regularly sneaking nips of gin and swilling down beers throughout the day.
Jack’s a mess. His sister worries about him. His soon-to-be ex-wife asks after him. But he keeps getting deeper in the hole. Then his phone rings. It’s Father Devine (John Aylward) at the high school where Jack once held sway as a basketball star, and he’s offering him a job: coaching the school’s basketball team, which the priest kindheartedly describes as “non-competitive.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ll have to think it over. My life is very full,” says Jack, who quickly runs out of excuses. He also realizes he’s at a dead end, so he says yes.
It’s established right away that Jack is a man who was once great at what he did on the court, and he still knows the game. The real challenge - one that Affleck terrifically brings to life - is that this job means he’ll have to deal with people. He’ll have to work with Dan (Al Madrigal), the assistant coach who probably should have been named coach, and with Father Whelan (Jeremy Radin), the team chaplain who tries to rein in bad behavior when he sees it. And there are the players. Marcus is a braggart with an attitude. Kenny believes that he’s a ladies’ man. Brandon has problems at home that are keeping him from shining when he’s playing ball.
But Jack goes for it. He stops drinking - at least when he’s working with the kids - and he presents himself as someone who will urge the team on in a lowkey manner and maybe turn things around. But in short order, after a string of losses, things aren’t exactly working out for him or for the team. He’s still sober when he’s coaching, but it’s back to a nip of gin before the construction job each morning, and back to the bar every night. Perhaps it’s that drinking, or the frustration of those losses, but Jack goes through a personality change at the games, and he’s soon cursing at and being verbally abusive to players, coaches, and refs.
His life is a mess, his drinking is out of control, and his team is losing. Even so, the writers Brad Ingelsby and Gavin O’Connor (O’Connor also directed) keep “The Way Back” from becoming a formula film. It’s certainly a study of how the team comes together and improves, but it’s much more a look at the progress - some of it up and some of it down - made by Jack. Affleck’s contributions include being very creative, and a bit scary, with his loud cursing and aberrant behavior, as well as getting his story told via long stretches of silence and use of his often expressionless face.
There are a couple of endings, involving the team, that tie things up a little too neatly, and one about Jack that’s much more open and, to the credit of the filmmakers and Affleck, should lead to viewer discussions of where the character might go from there.
Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.
“The Way Back”
Written by Brad Ingelsby and Gavin O’Connor; directed by Gavin O’Connor
With Ben Affleck
Rated R
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Movie review: Strong writing and acting keep ‘The Way Back’ from being a cliched sports movie - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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