Ben is Back
Starring Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Kathryn Newton, Courtney B. Vance
Directed by Peter Hedges
Reviewed by Michael Dalton
[rating: 3/5]
Ben is Back, the new film by Peter Hedges, is a tough film. You have instinctive performances by Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, the thorny issue of drug addiction, and sharp, intimate cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh. It’s one of two films of 2018 regarding drug use, the other being Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carrell, Timothee Chalamet, and a criminaly wasted Maura Tierney. That film sprawled too much for my liking. It felt too going-through-the-motions and it relied too heavily on a mawkish soundtrack. Hedges’s film, while not entirely successful, is better. It captures the intensity, and the desperation.
It begins with Holly (Roberts), busily preparing for Christmas with her family. In the midst of it, her son Ben (Hedges), a recovering heroin addict, unexpectedly returns home from rehab. It is painfully clear he’s left the program early and the reception he receives makes it clear his homecoming strikes fear into the hearts of his stepfather (Courtney B. Vance) and his half-sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton). For his mother however, its restrained jubilation. Upstairs she dashes to empty the medicine cabinets and a debate with her husband settles the issue: he can stay as long as he behaves. The thrust of the film of course is whether or not he’ll relapse and Peter Hedges sets the film up as a hybrid of drama and thriller that works effectively for the first half. Holly determines to never let Ben out of her sight and she means business. Even when she takes him clothes shopping she demands he leave the changing room door ajar. But then the horror begins. Ben’s addiction and drug dealing earned him a number of enemies in the neighbourhood and the family dog is stolen. The hunt to find the pooch leads to an intense twilight search where Holly learns just how far her son went during his darker days to secure his supply. It leaves her nauseous.
It’s a testament to the beguiling talent of Julia Roberts that the film sustains interest as well it does. She runs the gamut from caring and adoring to hell-hath-no-fury to flat out disgusted. But those eyes! Watch her as she first greets her son and later when she confronts the doctor who unwittingly launched her son on his wayward path. She gives us a spectrum of emotions that few performers could match in three movies. For too long she was the ringlet-adorned, grinning goddess whose teeth seemed bigger than the rest of her but now, as she proved in August:Osage County and more recently in the excellent Amazon series Homecoming, she’s more nuanced, steadier, even fascinating. She’s a genuine force of nature and she draws you in. Hedges is solid in the tougher role. His work is beautifully layered, Ben is like a rumbling volcano and, as it is with his leading lady, his eyes are the focus here and he lets us see the buried guilt. It’s a subtle performance that works until the film lurches into thriller mode. From there, it’s a disappointingly paint-by-numbers flick that wanders to the finish line. Luckily for all concerned, the weather does a lot of the heavy lifting. Its set in winter and you’ll feel the chill.
