Ben Is Back (2019) - Movie Review

Addiction is not an easy thing to get right, either on the big screen or in the real world. There are few things more disheartening than seeing someone in the midst of a chemical dependency, and one of them is having to go through such a thing for yourself. Portraying that kind of heartbreak, that desperation, that body-flooding pain is a difficult tightrope to walk from a narrative standpoint. 

Going too far in either direction could result in a disaffected wake-up call that only reminds audiences of how good they have it, or a glorified Very Special Episode that treats the matter far too simply to really connect. In the hands of writer/director Peter Hedges, whose last work was the aggressively forgettable Odd Life Of Timothy Green, we get a surprisingly effective walk straight down that tightrope with nary a wobble in sight.

For one, the cast is spot-on at every turn. Julia Roberts is in stark raving mode for a fair amount of the running time, showing some real Mama Bear levels of catharsis in how she deals with the prospect of looking after her son for a 24-hour period between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It takes some serious conviction to turn a scene where she wishes death on a dementia-riddled man into something that makes you cheer for her.

This is boosted when coupled with Lucas Hedges in the title role, giving an unnerving honest depiction of the routinely dishonest thought patterns of a recovering addict. It’s the kind of performance that highlights why self-awareness is such an important trait: Because it helps you prepare others for what they’ll have to deal with in your presence.

Much like last year’s addiction drama Beautiful Boy, the production at large orbits these two performances, and while Kathryn Newton and Courtney B. Vance as Ben’s sister and stepfather respectively add some grounded textures to the story, Roberts and Hedges have to carry most of the film on their own. The results of which are incredibly harrowing, with the day-long timeline keeping the pacing and tension suffocatingly tight throughout.

In essence, the story involves Ben returning home from rehab and, due to an old ‘acquaintance’ breaking into his home and stealing his dog, returning to his old ways and connections to get it back. Anyone already getting John Wick flashbacks from that setup should know that they aren’t alone in that, but in fairness, the way Ben’s prior overdose is described, it makes too much sense why he would risk relapsing and getting back into old habits just to save the thing that saved his life.

Wrapped around this visit from the Ghosts of Junkie Past are moments that connect Ben’s voyage into the underworld to a bigger picture, one that has been haunting the United States for a while now: Opioids. From painkiller prescriptions to the ease in which those prescriptions can be filled (maybe this is just an American thing, but the idea of a drive-thru pharmacy immediately puts me on edge) to the unfortunate slope from over-the-counter to down-the-block scoring of meds, Ben’s mission and his mother’s attempts to serve as his Virgil are given a basis in reality that allows for a very heavy feeling to linger over the story. A feeling of how easily a person can become ensnared, and how difficult it can be to get themselves out of it… if they live long enough to even get to the point where they know that they should.

It’s an understated and brisk offering that feels even more harrowing because of that. By pulling very few punches and making it clear the uphill struggle that everyone involved is going through, from the addicts to their families to their extended support networks, Peter Hedges and co. create an honest depiction of the reality of drug addiction and recovery that… well, let’s just say that it gave me food for thought in regards to my own addictive personality traits.