3/10/2023 0 Comments The way backHe resents his supportive sister, Beth (Michaela Watkins), for reminding him of his failures. He lashes out at his estranged wife, Angela (Janina Gvankar), for “fucking some rich guy” long before their divorce is final. Things start with a thud as the film treats Jack like a modern-day Job, faced with constant sorrows. You can see why a movie with an uplifting message about not being derailed by adversity must have appealed to him. The actor-writer-director - who’s played everyone from Batman to Jack Ryan, won an Oscar for the Good Will Hunting script he co-wrote with Matt Damon and collected the Best Picture prize for Argo - suddenly found himself slammed with commercial fizzles ( Live By Night, To the Wonder), personal setbacks, and numerous struggles with addiction. It’s no accident that The Way Back slightly mirrors Affleck’s own highly publicized bouts with alcoholism, relapse, and recovery. Jack needs to slug a thermos full of vodka to just consider the idea. Never mind that he’s never coached before. The first big one comes when this down-on-his-luck loser is offered a job to coach the failing basketball team at Bishop Hayes High, his alma mater. The movie is always cooking up outside events for him to react to, even when Affleck makes it clear that man’s demons are inside. and hit the bottle hard to blot out a divorce, self-hatred, and personal tragedy (one that, to be honest, the movie didn’t really need to drive its point home … but whatever). Instead, the ex-star athlete took a dead-end construction job in L.A. ![]() ![]() Ben Affleck eases persuasively into The Way Back, a sports/redemption drama that’s playing way below his level - and into the role of Jack Cunningham, a former high school hoops star who once passed on a free ride at the University of Kansas.
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