Ben is Back
(USA, 103 min.)
Written and directed by Peter Hedges
Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance,
Kathryn Newton
 |
| Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges star in Ben is Back Courtesy Elevation Pictures |
Ben is Back might
be the most depressing Christmas movie since It’s a Wonderful Life. But if there is a Jimmy Stewart in Hollywood
today, his spirit endures in Julia Roberts’ infectious smile. Roberts is
heartbreakingly good in Ben is Back
playing Holly Burns, the devoted mother fighting to save her family with the
same indefatigable goodwill that makes audiences cheer for George Bailey year
after year. She gives one of her best and most surprising performances opposite
Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased) in this
engaging, emotionally draining, and ultimately rewarding portrait of
addiction’s ability to tear families apart.
This reunion is a happy one, albeit a suspicious one too.
Ben is on leave from rehab, having been excused under ambiguous circumstance.
Holly doesn’t say anything other than to express her joy at Ben’s return, along
with concerns for his recovery, but behind Roberts’ big and toothy smile is a
tragic mask that reveals a familiar situation. Ben’s returns imply a relapse,
and Holly scuttles around the house hiding pills, jewellery, and anything that
may feed the habits of her beautiful boy.
Ben is Back, like Beautiful Boy, conveys the difficulty of
restoring trust in a relationship after it’s been broken by addiction. Like Nathalie
(Marie-Josée Croze) says in Denys Arcand’s The
Barbarian Invasions, “You should never trust a junkie. They make a habit of
lying.” Holly’s happiness over Ben’s return is intimately connected with her
instincts to protect him, as well as Ivy and her two younger children from her
marriage to Neal (Courtney B. Vance), Ben’s stepfather. This instinct
ultimately overrides the joy of the reunion, since Holly recognizes that
letting her guard down to bask in the Yuletide spirit could disarm her. As she
takes Ben through their suburban neighbourhood to do a little Christmas
shopping and spend some quality time together, the reunion is marked by
security checks, inspections, and tests for any breach of trust.
The events take a dark turn when Ben’s past catches up with
him and threatens the family. However, writer/director Peter Hedges (Lucas’s
father) has a firm handle on the tone and delicacy of the family dynamics. Back
in dysfunctional family mode after 2003’s Thanksgiving flick Piece of April, Hedges keeps the
family’s downward spiral real and raw, favouring the ugliness of the situation
to give audiences an intimate view of the everyday hell that parents experience
as their children battle addiction. Ben
is Back adds a complicated dynamic to the mix when Hedges reveals that the
source of Ben’s addiction is not the usual excuse of boredom, bad choices, and
falling in with the wrong crowd. In a great scene, Roberts confronts the doctor
who prescribed painkillers to Ben when he broke his leg as a young teen and
kept increasing the dosage, feeding Ben’s recovery and precipitating his
addiction. This choice in the scripting ensures that the illness, not the
individual, is under the microscope.
Ben is Back is
stylistically more conservative than its kaleidoscopic companion Beautiful Boy, but the two films give
frank and sobering portraits of addiction and of the lengths to which parents
go to protect their children. The two films feature bravura performances by
their young stars and offer further proof that Hedges and Chalamet have strong
futures ahead of them. Where Beautiful
Boy falters is in the dramatic limitations of Carell, who is greatly
eclipsed by Chalamet’s Brando-esque screen presence, Roberts commands Ben is Back equally with Hedges, and
lets the mother-son relationship balance the dramatic scale of the film.
Roberts hasn’t been given material this good in years and
she knows a great part when she sees one. She is rarely this open and
vulnerable onscreen, like in one devastating scene that feels ripped from the
hospital halls of Terms of Endearment
and sees Holly tearfully enter a police station and beg the officers to do
anything they can to find Ben. Her aforementioned scene with Ben’s doctor, on
the other hand, brings out her August: Osage County acerbity as her she threatens the old man from behind her
signature smile with a remark of well-deserved coldness that cuts sharply.
George Bailey might never have said such a nasty thing in Bedford Falls, and
one hardly anticipates it to arise from Roberts’ mouth, either. Ben is Back isn’t an expected pick for
the holiday season, but few movies this season will make audiences cherish the
gift of family so sincerely.
Ben is Back opens
in theatres on December 14.