There have been many basketball movies. Not as many as baseball, but a standout or two. I was drawn to the Ben Affleck vehicle, The Way Back, a release from 2020. I woke at 6am one morning and there was no soccer on tv yet and no young miss awake with whom to enjoy a game.
At first, I thought I was watching a copy of Hoosiers, and maybe the similarities (underdog high school team, a coach seeking redemption, a troubled player key to the season’s success, alcoholism, a past with a marital breakup) got my skepticism antennae twitching.
I admit I don’t follow Ben Affleck. Not even his tabloid misadventures with, not surprisingly, some of the elements in the film. He does quite well in this formula-driven sports flick. It is indeed a fine performance, almost but not quite to Gene Hackman’s level in that 1986 movie.
What struck me: the difficulty of dealing with addiction alone. Mr Affleck’s character isolates from his family after a divorce. He’s an active alcoholic basically treading water in a dead-end job that pays enough to keep him pickled in cheap beer and liquid bar fare. Lies and flimsy excuses are routine. But when he begins to find meaning in coaching high school basketball, things change. It is revealed he and his ex-wife lost a son to cancer. What a terrible tragedy that sometimes will splinter a couple’s relationship. Sometimes two people think they can fix it on their own. Too often help is ignored, not asked for, not sought.
AA is never mentioned here. The character is essentially a dry drunk, and as long as things go well–the team wins and doesn’t get too many bad calls against it, and his son’s friend stays in remission–the coach can function well enough. He even looks like he’s on the mend.
A Bad Thing happens and Jack spirals into a binge with significant natural consequences. A 12-Step devotee would have at least thought to call his sponsor. There is a treatment center, yes, and a substance abuse counselor. The final resolution is that the viewer is led to believe Jack can piece a healthy existence back together. Some things have been lost for good, but there is hope.
Did I mention the team is from a Catholic high school? Faith doesn’t play much of a role at all in this. It really could be any high school, except for the earnest but ultimately humorous attempts to get foul language under control.
The fine acting and the relative lack of melodrama (there had to be some of it) raised this movie from a routine C-minus (debit for semi-plagiarism) to about a B by the end. In a film like this you know a few things are going to happen. The team is going to win something. The central character will find some way to seriously screw up, hit bottom, and rise from the ashes.
Catholic Sensibility 