Review of Ben Is Back (2018) by Joshua S — 22 Jan 2019

There are a thousand different statistics out there about the opioid crisis, but within each of those numbers touted about in the "Americans are now more likely to die from opioid overdoses than car crashes" headlines there are also that many individual stories-some of which no doubt share many a similarities-while others exist wholly in their own unique bubble.

In Peter Hedges' Ben is Back the writer/director behind such dewy-eyed works of genuine affection like Dan in Real Life and The Odd Life of Timothy Green turns his attention to one such scenario that includes your average middle class, upstate New York family where Julia Roberts is the mom, Holly, with two kids from a previous marriage, the titular Ben played by Hedges' son, Lucas, and the over-achieving daughter, Ivy, as played by Blockers' Kathryn Newton, who has since re-married to Neal (Courtney B. Vance) with whom she has two younger children. The dynamic of the somewhat blended family would stand on solid foundation were it not for Holly's oldest son who became addicted to pain killers at a young age which served as a segue into other drugs and dangerous circles.

From the outside, Ben is Back admittedly looks like your run-of-the-mill addiction drama that might pave over the ugly stuff in favor of telling an inspiring story of redemption, but the film is keen on not glossing over certain realities, but instead reinforces the fact that this could ultimately become anyone's reality-even someone who lives in a nice suburban house and participates in the Christmas pageant every year. Surprisingly, this is a film that not only packs in the expected simultaneous beauty and heartbreak that comes with being a parent, but also poses to be something of an authentic thriller with real, raw tension.

It's an interestingly structured screenplay that approaches the audience with a simple premise and seemingly average family before unraveling the layers and the complications that come along with those layers-it's really quite impressively done in terms of character definition and development. It doesn't hurt that Roberts is in top dramatic form here as a woman who must constantly walk the line between being this happy mother who is thrilled just to have her son back to that of a mother who is panicked and concerned about what that son might do next; it's as equally harrowing as it is unrelenting. As the film is largely something of a two-hander though, and as someone who hasn't yet completely warmed up to the idea of Lucas Hedges, credible actor, the twenty-two year-old won me over with his ability to also go from having all the confidence and charisma in the world-enough to make his mother believe he's truly made massive improvements after a seventy-seven day stint in rehab, anyway-to that of being this fearful, apologetic little boy that regresses in front of his mother. These pendulum swings in personalities are representative of the journeys each of these characters take and thus are representative of the journey we take in the film.

Ben may be back, but more importantly-so is Roberts-and I don't think young Hedges is going anywhere, anytime soon.