Rent Finding the Way Back (2020)

3.3 of 5 from 276 ratings
1h 44min
Rent Finding the Way Back (aka Torrance / The Has-Been /  The Way Back) Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
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Synopsis:
Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) was a high school basketball phenom with a promising future when he suddenly walked away from the game. Now, years later, he is drowning in the alcoholism that cost him his marriage and any hope for a better life. When Jack is asked to coach the basketball team at his alma mater, he may have finally found a reason to confront his demons, but will it be enough to heal the deep wounds of his past and set him on the road to redemption?
Actors:
, , , , Brandon Wilson, , , , , , , , , , , , , , Layla Golfieri,
Directors:
Gavin O'Connor
Producers:
Gordon Gray, Ravi D. Mehta, Gavin O'Connor, Jennifer Todd
Writers:
Brad Ingelsby
Aka:
Torrance / The Has-Been / The Way Back
Studio:
Warner
Genres:
Drama, Sports & Sport Films
BBFC:
Release Date:
12/10/2020
Run Time:
104 minutes
Languages:
English Audio Description Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English, English Hard of Hearing
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.40:1
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Every Loss Is Another Fight: The Road to Redemption - A revealing look into the character of Jack Cunningham with Ben Affleck and director Gavin O'Connor
BBFC:
Release Date:
12/10/2020
Run Time:
108 minutes
Languages:
English Audio Description Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Atmos
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 2.40:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • The Way Back: This Sporting Life - Director Gavin O'Connor and Ben Affleck discuss sports as a metaphor for life, and how competition can help us understand ourselves
  • Every Loss Is Another Fight: The Road to Redemption - A revealing look into the character of Jack Cunningham with Ben Affleck and director Gavin O'Connor

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Reviews (6) of Finding the Way Back

Decent but standard sports film - Finding the Way Back review by TH

Spoiler Alert
21/11/2020

This is a decent film that is worth a watch. Ben affleck does a good job in the lead role but overall this is a rather standard sports film with a troubled head coach. It wont break new grounds but it's harmless enough to watch.

3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.

Hmmmmmm shower beer.... - Finding the Way Back review by Strovey

Spoiler Alert
19/04/2021

Finding the Way Back, originally called The Way Back but changed probably to stop confusion with several films called The Way Back or the excellent The Way Way Back (it certainly has no similarities with that film) is a reasonably entertaining film but I cannot say it is enjoyable or made to be. You are not going to get many laughs in a film that superficially deals with a losing basketball team but is mainly about addiction and unrelenting grief and guilt. Heavy stuff and overall handled reasonably well although crammed conveniently into the running time.

Affleck gives a good turn as the heavy-set drunk even more poignant due to the fact he apparently had just come out of rehab again from his own problems with alcohol so you have to say at some level this was a brave move by him, and he must have known exactly how his character felt and behaved, so who am I criticise the veracity of any of the alcohol-infused set pieces?

As a sports film there is nothing particularly bad about it but there is also nothing original. The team does seem to go from hopeless losers to unbeatable behemoth rather too quickly and we get all the usual characters in the line-up, well played by the young actors, but they are all present and correct and apart from Brandon the quiet one, they are just sketches in the story of ‘Jack’. Al Madrigal turns in a subtle display as the mathematics teacher assistant coach and along with the team Chaplin, Father Whelan it would have been good to have a look into the effect Jack’s life had on them and how they behaved but this was very much surface skim for these characters.

There is no doubt that Finding the Way Back definitely tugs on your emotional strings maybe a bit too spot-on for my liking, but it does it well and skilfully. You are never asked to like Jack and never asked to forgive him for his destructive addiction, but you are asked to understand why he is a mere shell of the man he used to be.

Although the sporting cliches, including the dramatic last game finale play out with nothing new added the film does try to subvert the usual sugary endings and you are left with nothing particularly tied up in neat bows at the end.

All in all, Finding the Way Back is a perfectly good piece of cinematic entertainment, it is nothing new, and breaks no emotional tear-jerker rules but also what it does do it does competently well and better than many in the same lane as it. Affleck is a fine ruined man, he looks the part, only smiles and laughs when he is drunk and likes to chug when he is having a shower. Having known many high-functioning drunks in my life I can say the look is accurate including what was known around where I lived as ‘Wayne Douglas Jeans’ wherein the crutch of the jeans hangs around down by the wearers knees no matter how the jeans are actually worn, somehow being tidy and scruffy at the same time. The supporting cast do good work but is given little to nothing to do with the two main female roles Janina Gavankar (ex-wife) and Michaela Watkins (sister) acquitting themselves well in roles that offer nothing groundbreaking or different.

The director, writer and main actor have tried to make a story that gives us an insight to the desperate world of self-destructive addiction, life-crushing tragedy and redemption and in the main have succeeded it is just that as a sports-themed film and redemption show it offers little that is new, just some grittiness and showcasing that Affleck on his day is a top actor.

Recommended if you like these types of films, with no laughs, and not if you had your fill of them. The choice, as they say, is yours.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Solid yet unsurprising - Finding the Way Back review by AER

Spoiler Alert
21/06/2021

You won't see many dramas more predictable than FINDING YOUR WAY BACK, a small-scale vehicle for Ben Affleck's considerable talents. The actor impresses as an alcoholic given a shot at redemption when he is asked to coach a basketball team at his former school. Keeping a lid on his drinking becomes a problem when pressures mount from all sides. We learn about his back story, and there is a moving but expected reason behind Ben's initial decent into alcoholism, and it seems added on. There are a lot of people who slide into drinking without reason and this aspect made the film less convincing in some respects. It was solid and very well-acted, however, it was unadventurous and had difficulty distinguishing itself from lesser made issues movies. Almost.

5 out of 10

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Critic review

Finding the Way Back (aka Torrance / The Has-Been / The Way Back) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

The Way Back couldn’t be a more fitting title for a film such as this with such a performance. Ben Affleck had been hurting not just from his lukewarm acting roles but his personal life. A story of former high school basketball athlete getting his groove back by coaching a ragtag group of misfit athletes doesn’t sound like the most inspiring story. But here is a film that is presented with an opportunity to pull itself out of the mundane and miraculously finds something more than the familiar.

Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a man who now leads a quiet life in a seaside town. Working in construction, he mostly keeps to himself. He works his shift without much issue and then steers his truck over to the bar, taking a drink without much talk. If he doesn’t end up drunkenly stumbling home, he still returns to his empty house to indulge in his fridge of beer. In the morning, he drinks in the shower. After work, he’ll drink in the car before even getting to the bar. Slowly, his silent past is revealed. We soon learn that he was once a high school basketball legend and that he was divorced. And that a tragic event forced him to retreat into his semi-hermit lifestyle, only sometimes venturing out to visit family.

Jack’s Christian high school reaches out to him to let him know that their basketball team is in desperate need of some guidance. They haven’t won a championship since...well, Jack. Astounded at the challenge, the reluctant Jack takes a look at the boys he’s dealing with it and it’s the familiar ensemble of underdogs. The cut-up, the loverboy, the cocky jock and the quiet one with problems at home. Perhaps Jack has seen this kind of movie before and is aware enough on how to handle them that he doesn’t take extra care in handling them. Even his speeches to motivate them come off believably harsh and true, never slipping into melodramatic inspiration or hokey heroics.

Because the truth is Jack’s problems with his past as well as his alcoholism is not something that will merely be cured from coaching a team to victory. That’s a limited mindset that the film, fortunately, doesn’t favor. It instead shifts the focus more towards Jack’s problems that are handled with a certain gentleness and grace. Jack’s drinking problem is never overly exaggerated, treated more as a lacking emotion band-aid than a dangerous path of physical damage. He needs help desperately and that help will not be resolved with basketball. In order to receive help first, he must come to terms with himself and the great tragedy that has shifted his life in an uncomfortable direction.

It’d be easy enough to see where a film like The Way Back would shift away from its greater drama for easy theatrics and it’s intriguing to watch the movie actively try to avoid these traps. For example, the basketball games are seen in a manner of the most important dramatic highlights rather than always showcasing that game-winning shot. Often, the games will quickly cut to the final score, giving us the basic facts rather than linger on too much basketball footage. The players have various problems that need resolve but Jack’s devotion never seems to nosey in this respect. Sometimes the avoidance of melodrama backfires, as with the secondary character of Doc, a bar patron that helps Jack home every night. Doc seems to have a connection to Jack’s father and perhaps there was something in Jack’s father’s past that shaped his future. Or maybe he’s just a red herring.

I was very much surprised by how compelling The Way Back ended up being and never fell into the pit of forgettable sports drama. We don’t need a scene of Affleck giving a rousing speech while the music swells. Seen it before. What I haven’t seen as much out of Affleck is a somber realization of his life being in dire need of contemplation and facing fears, delivered in a manner so well it harkens back to his performance in Gone Girl. Those expecting an inspiring sports drama will be let down by the film’s slow pan away from basketball. Those expecting more will be greatly satisfied with fantastic direction on top of what could’ve been a mildly forgettable film.

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