Re: Ben is Back reviews
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:56 pm
I really loved this. (Also disagree that it's visually drab--there were times where I was thinking that Peter Hedges really knows how to get a striking close-up. Also times where I felt like Hedges should've traded the handheld camera for something that would make the shots a bit more fluid.)
Of the two addiction dramas in theaters this fall, this is clearly the stronger of the two, although it's also worth noting that they both tackle the subject from wildly different angles--Beautiful Boy took a more all-encompassing approach, showing the ups and downs of addiction over several years, while Ben Is Back centers on roughly a 24-hour period, where Ben (Lucas Hedges, excellent) unexpectedly comes home for Christmas (he had been living in a sober-living facility). His mom, Holly (Julia Roberts, also excellent) is glad to see that her son is safe and (maybe) doing okay, while his step-dad and sister aren't quite so welcoming. In some ways it's a modern riff on the parable of the Lost Son--there's the parent, relieved and happy to see their son, while also giving a voice and perspective to the brother (sister in this case) who had loyally stayed with the parent. The first half is mostly a domestic drama, essentially ending in a truly excellent scene at a Christmas Eve church service, a moment where we really feel the possibility of old wrongs being acknowledged and forgiven. (Hedges has a wordless close-up in this scene that is just great.) After this it becomes a different movie, kind of, and I suspect some people might be resistant to the way the character drama of the first half kind-of-sort-of gives way to a more traditional genre film in the second half, but it unexpectedly plays out as a reverse of It's A Wonderful Life (rather than showing the positive impact he had on the town, we instead see a glimpse of the damage that Ben caused), and thematically I think it works: Forgiveness and grace, in many cases, are appreciated more when we get a firm idea of what is being forgiven. Whereas Beautiful Boy put on-screen disclaimers at the end to give Nic's story a definitive conclusion, Ben Is Back never offers a resolution beyond what matters most to Holly and Ben in that very moment. I think the movie justifies that ending too, because it's not a movie that's concerned with years of sobriety--it knows that even with several days, weeks, months, and even years of sobriety, the most important thing is sometimes getting to the next day, or the next hour, or the next minute. I think the ending also underlines the fact that this is a movie that knows that, even in the worst scenarios, even in the hardest times, there's still room for forgiveness, and grace.
Of the two addiction dramas in theaters this fall, this is clearly the stronger of the two, although it's also worth noting that they both tackle the subject from wildly different angles--Beautiful Boy took a more all-encompassing approach, showing the ups and downs of addiction over several years, while Ben Is Back centers on roughly a 24-hour period, where Ben (Lucas Hedges, excellent) unexpectedly comes home for Christmas (he had been living in a sober-living facility). His mom, Holly (Julia Roberts, also excellent) is glad to see that her son is safe and (maybe) doing okay, while his step-dad and sister aren't quite so welcoming. In some ways it's a modern riff on the parable of the Lost Son--there's the parent, relieved and happy to see their son, while also giving a voice and perspective to the brother (sister in this case) who had loyally stayed with the parent. The first half is mostly a domestic drama, essentially ending in a truly excellent scene at a Christmas Eve church service, a moment where we really feel the possibility of old wrongs being acknowledged and forgiven. (Hedges has a wordless close-up in this scene that is just great.) After this it becomes a different movie, kind of, and I suspect some people might be resistant to the way the character drama of the first half kind-of-sort-of gives way to a more traditional genre film in the second half, but it unexpectedly plays out as a reverse of It's A Wonderful Life (rather than showing the positive impact he had on the town, we instead see a glimpse of the damage that Ben caused), and thematically I think it works: Forgiveness and grace, in many cases, are appreciated more when we get a firm idea of what is being forgiven. Whereas Beautiful Boy put on-screen disclaimers at the end to give Nic's story a definitive conclusion, Ben Is Back never offers a resolution beyond what matters most to Holly and Ben in that very moment. I think the movie justifies that ending too, because it's not a movie that's concerned with years of sobriety--it knows that even with several days, weeks, months, and even years of sobriety, the most important thing is sometimes getting to the next day, or the next hour, or the next minute. I think the ending also underlines the fact that this is a movie that knows that, even in the worst scenarios, even in the hardest times, there's still room for forgiveness, and grace.