The Way Back Tackles Addiction and Tragedy amid Basketball

The Way Back may have started as a high school basketball drama, but it almost seems as though director Gavin O’Connor took a thorough look at the content and decided to fine-tune the whole thing. Like a devoted coach, he’s wise enough to know where such a story has strength and where the pitfalls may lie. He’s astute enough that the heart and soul with such a picture does not reside in the team making that winning shot or a coach giving a rousing speech to his players—instead, he looked it over and made the right call to pass the picture over to a more resonant story of addiction and tragedy.

This provides the perfect role for Ben Affleck to flex his acting skills where they are their finest: Jack Cunningham, a man who lives a quiet and sad life as a construction worker. Over the course of his family exchanges, we come to learn that he has had a divorce and now drowns his sorrows in beer. He doesn’t seem overly bitter, at least when he’s not being prodded, and seems to do well with most people he meets. He’s mildly revered within the community for having taken his Christian high school to the basketball playoffs. But he mostly keeps to himself, hiding his uneasiness and retreating to the bar.

Ben Affleck as Jack. Warner Bros. Pictures

With the school now struggling to maintain its basketball team, Jack is called in as a coach who can whip them into shape. The team is your average assortment of misfit athletes in need of a leader: there’s the cocky jock, the quiet underdog, the jocular cut-up, and the lovelorn kid who just can’t pick a girlfriend. The film thankfully never relies on these characters to carry the story, narrowly avoiding the typical sports-movie formula. There are numerous scenes in which Jack could swoop in, deliver an inspiring talk, and resolve the issues and arcs of the characters, but he never becomes that easy sort of coach archetype or slips down that route of melodrama.

His talks with the students are not those of sensitive and heroic speeches but harsh words of pushing forward, coming off believably intense. When a student he recently kicked off the team for being late comes pleading for another chance, Jack merely gives a sigh and a nod rather than deliver some tired speech about responsibility. Jack also has a problem with cursing, which he tries to revolve around the understanding algebra teacher Dan (Al Madrigal).

Jack and Dan talk with the team. Warner Bros. Pictures

Where the film’s true heart and soul thankfully lie is in Jack’s more major concern—issues with alcoholism and addiction. In a lesser film, these would be mild mountains to conquer as the coach focuses more on basketball as a distraction. The Way Back, however, slowly pulls back the curtain of his tragic past as he reconnects with his ex-wife, Angela (Janina Gavankar). We soon come to learn why Jack has ended up as a somber construction worker and a constant customer of the local tavern. His backstory is given a great deal of contemplation and sensitivity, letting this more appealing aspect become a bigger part of the tear-jerker tale.

O’Connor takes a script that could’ve ended up as mild melodrama and makes plenty of great choices to elevate the content. A lot of this work is visible in the editing. The basketball scenes never linger too long to get the nail-biter moments; we see the highlights and often just cut to the final score, sometimes for comedic effect. More thought is put into Jack’s more quiet moments, like the hard ride home from work, the tough phone call he debates making, and the anxiety of a morning shower with a beer in hand. His alcoholism is never played up for laughs and always treated in a manner that makes Affleck most believable as someone who has chosen to shut out his feelings for another pint.

That said, O’Connor’s tough-call editing doesn’t always pay off. As a perfect example, Glynn Turman shows up at the bar as Doc, an old-timer who knew Jack’s father and is responsible for hauling Jack back to his house safely. It seems like there may be more to him, but he merely fulfills the function of the designated walker and little more, forgotten about in the third act.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The Way Back is a perfect example of a by-the-numbers basketball-coach drama that makes all the right calls to be a little more. Much of this is owed to Affleck turning in an astoundingly emotional performance that is brimming with great fury on the court and deep depression at home. Thanks to some of his finest work, what may have started as a ho-hum sports picture is transformed into a more moving movie.