The Way Back

The Way Back is a movie that is quite enjoyable especially if you are a fan of sports movies and love basketball. Ben Affleck gives a strong performance which feels very personal to him. This element heightens the film even more, it has a lot of things that you would find in the sports genre such as: Motivational scenes which make you feel good and make you want to support the characters. It doesn't oversimplify the game of basketball as well, the way they use strategies and plays feel like something you would actually see in a huddle of a high school basketball game and as a former assistant coach for a school basketball team I found that to be a really cool element. The way it handles the drama aspects outside of basketball and the real reason as to why the character is an alcoholic I found to be quite compelling and it felt quite emotional at times.

The film has a couple of drawbacks with the main one being that this is a little too cliched at times, a lot of tropes that you would see in sports films happen in this one, and I noticed that a lot of elements on the coaches interactions with the players were a little too similar to coach carter, which was a film that handled those elements better. Also the acting apart from Affleck for the most part was sub par, especially in the first act. The run time felt a little too long as well due to the fact that there were a lot of sub plots, I think it could have been better if they would cut some of them out to create a more tighter storyline.

Overall, I had a good time with the way back, i think if you're not a fan of the genre you wont find anything new here. However if you love sports, basketball and typical films in this genre you will have a good time like I did, and the awesome Ben Affleck performance is a bonus.

The dialog, acting, the characters, production value, etc. of this movie were excellent. It is a very honest representation of a man suffering with grief and alcoholism.

However, it suffers from being a retread of many other similar movies. You can trace the story arc easily and predict what will happen throughout. You also shouldn't go into this movie thinking it is a 'sports' movie, while basketball coaching serves as a vehicle of redemption, you could have written the same movie about someone taking a job teaching a class or working with special needs kids.

Finally, be warned that this is a very 'heavy' movie. There are a few lighter scenes, but >80% of the movie is dramatic and played for an emotional punch.

Worth a watch for Affeck's performance.

Finding The Way Back is an incredible drama that's emotional and powerful, managing to use an extremely familiar narrative effectively. Ben Affleck gives a phenomenal and personal lead performance that's easily one of his best. Al Madrigal and Janina Gavankar are both great and all of the young cast are all really good. Gavin O'Connor's direction is excellent, it's extremely well filmed and well paced. The music by Rob Simonson is fantastic.

Ben Affleck was outstanding, no question there, as was the entire cast for that matter, but many little flaws held this film back from being great.

The annoying zoom-ins and shaky cam has been overdone and outdated - since The Office. There's no excuse this coming from experienced writer and director Gavin O'Connor, of which he and screenwriter Brad Ingelsby also needed to tell the story better.

The 108 min runtime wasn't used efficiently, as too much too fast happened in the last 15 mins, whereas up to that point, everything before that was more fluff than substance, with very slow pacing. I understand this film wasn't about basketball, and more about alcohol addiction, but had there been less fluff, with the message still coming across, and a better resolution that included the other 90% of the cast, this film would've been much better, instead of having lots of guts, and not enough glory. The score was also overbearing. It's a 7/10 from me, most of it for Affleck's performance.

This is a story about a man, approaching middle age, and out of the blue being asked to step in as head coach of a mediocre high school basketball team. That the man is an alcoholic battling his demons is the real story.

Ben Affleck is in the lead role as Jack, working in construction, separated from his wife and still grieving from the death of his young son just a few years earlier. His routine is to stop at the local bar after work and often being helped home, walking distance away, by a regular patron.

Jack had been a statewide basketball star in high school but gave up the chance to play in college at Kansas and a potential pro career. Because of issues related to his dad. And now his old school is asking him for help with the team.

This is a really good movie but hard to watch at times. Affleck himself has been on a similar path so his performance is very authentic. In a 5-minute extra on the disc he explains how his own battle with alcoholism entered into the characterization. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.