The Way Back
Ben Affleck is making a comeback of variety withThe Way Back , and the drama is seeing the actor take in some of the in effect reviews of his career . He may be one of the most recognizable star on the satellite , as well as lately playing Batman , but Affleck ’s been contribute a more consciously quiet spirit of tardily .
The underwhelming tone ending ofJustice League , followed by the katzenjammer hem in Zack Snyder ’s outlet from the project and his now near - mythicalternate cutof the picture , only seemed to exacerbate outcome . Affleck was publicly struggling too , between his divorce from wife Jennifer Garner and his issue with alcohol addiction , which led to a very extremely reported return to rehab . Like many addicts , Affleck was squeeze to fight his battles under the harsh spotlight of the media , which put him in an utterly unenviable billet .
2020 see Affleck returning to the public eye with a jam - jam slate , withThe Way Backbeing only his latest new movie . He ’s also reuniting with best acquaintance Matt Damon for the Ridley Scott historical epicThe Last Duel , and he ’ll star alongside rumored lady friend Ana de Armas in the erotic thrillerDeep Water . The Way Backis a sportsman dramatic event courtesy of music director Gavin O’Connor that may hit nigh to home for the actor . Affleck play an alcoholic building worker who returns to the high school where he was once a star hoops actor to coach the new squad . The film has been powerfully look back overall , but the most enthusiastic write - ups have been reserved forAffleck ’s performance .
Affleck has often faced attack for being a supposedly bad actor , but give the ripe material and direction , he is more than capable of holding his own . He is an honoree of the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival , after all . The Way Backseems to typify more for Affleck than just him doing respectable employment . It ’s hard to escape reference of his individual aliveness and its parallels with the movie in reviews , consultation , and the like . Everyone is fully aware of what it mean to see a recovering addict trifle an addict , and how in person Affleck must have felt that . There ’s great fellow feeling for him on that front and he ’s certainly very unforced to expose his vulnerability for good use withThe style Back . He ’s unafraid to look and act like a mountain in a way that feels unquestionable without disgorge into melodramatic - and it has n’t run unnoticed by reviewers .
Variety :
Ben Affleck [ is ] somber and looming , with a no - frills sentence he has n’t shown as an role player in quite some meter … He ’s terrific in the early scenes , when Jack visit his sister ’s family for Thanksgiving and we see what a unretentive fuse he has , especially if anyone questions his drinking . Reaching for another brewage , or another slug of cheap vodka , he ’s weary and energized at the same meter . "
USA Today :
" Affleck remind us once again that he ’s a first - stratum worker – just in case anyone forget after his brief stint in an infamous mantle and hood . He ’s able to play Jack as both rebellious drawing card of men and vulnerable addict every bit well : The backstory of his character is a obtuse tan of tremendous repressed emotion , and Affleck ’s good stuff comes late in the game when the audience finally empathize the deepness of Jack ’s struggles . "
Wall Street Journal :
" Mr. Affleck owns the role . He work it with the nuance of a type histrion and the coil ferocity of the lead he has always been , through good theatrical role and risky . "
Vulture :
" More than anything , The Way Back is a admonisher that pic stardom has never sit easily on Affleck , who was respectable at playing a desperate actor who perplex noted for playing a superhero in Hollywoodland than he was take on a superhero himself … [ As Jack ] he ’s a touching example of a high-pitched schooltime hero gone to seed but also of a man who , in middle age , is struggling to bump a style around the close - down stoicism he was raised to aspire to . It ’s a carrying into action that suggests the most interesting stretchiness of Affleck ’s career as an actor is still to come . "
It ’s unfair to outstrip Affleck himself from the credit for his own performance , because he and the work deserve right smart better than that . Affleck ’s most compelling public presentation come when he recreate off or subverts the double he embody in the public eye for the longest sentence . For many years , Affleck was mostly know for playing total d - bag and bros . There are roles of this type that he excelled in ( seeDogmaandShakespeare in Love ) , but it was a heat he was stuck in for a long clock time before reinventing himself as a director .
For a solid few class , Affleck was view the big - name actor it was okay to just straight - up loathe because of those roles in turkey likeSurviving Christmasand the now - infamousGigli . He ’s so first-class inHollywoodlandbecause he deliberately play off our preconceived notions of the all - American movie hero and uncover the shadow underneath the glossy surface . Gone Girl , arguably his greatest performance , is a full - on metatextual study of The Ben Affleck Type that eviscerates everything we know about and have a bun in the oven from it . The way of life Backsimply come in that custom , but it feel fresh and more relevant than ever because of the particular context it ’s been release in .
People are used to find Ben Affleck in a specific way , andThe means Backfeels like an active rebutter to those assumptions . hoi polloi are , by and orotund , on Ben Affleck ’s side and require him to deliver the goods - and this is the performance that feels like the right step forward .
NEXT : The Way Back Review : Ben Affleck & Gavin O’Connor Are A Winning Team
