Director – Gavin O’Connor – 2020 – US – Cert. 15 – 108m
***
Available on VoD from Friday, July 10th
Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) has a drink problem. He separated from ex-wife Ange (Janina Gavankar) over a year ago. With his life going nowhere, Jack gets a phone call asking him to drop in on the Catholic school where he used to play baseball which turns out be be a job offer for team coach since the incumbent has just unexpectedly had a heart attack. Jack used to be the team’s star player back in the day, but he isn’t sure if he should take the job.
Anyway, he goes for it and finds himself building a bunch of no hope kids into a winning team. He has to fire one who turns up late for practice and build the confidence of the best player on the team who doesn’t believe he should be team captain. He has to stop swearing because it’s against school policy and he must deal with his drinking problem before it gets the better of him. He has bigger personal issues to confront as well– there are reasons why he drinks.
This deceptively ordinary drama accomplishes everything it sets out to do and will hold your attention throughout. It a solid script with well thought out characterisations, well cast, beautifully shot and has an impressive music score. One minor quibble is the ending – it works, but when the screen goes dark and the credits role, you might find yourself saying, as I did, “that’s it?”
While we in the UK are still waiting for our cinemas to open, we’re desperate for things to watch. If you want a solid, reliable drama this might be just the ticket. Be warned that there’s material here not only about the death of a child and what that can do to a marriage but also dealing with swearing and drinking, all of which issues are well handled.
At the present time, the film has one tremendous asset: it’s about people trying to get back on track after their lives have gone wrong. With society currently feeling somewhat lost following a few months of lockdown, that subject matter may well strike a chord which in all likelihood never occurred to anyone on the production team when they were making the film. No masterpiece then and not a film for everybody to immediately rush to rent but for some people it might hit exactly the right note at the present time.
Finding The Way Back is out on VoD in the UK on Friday, July 10th. Here’s the trailer: