Review of The Way Back (2020) by Theredsky — 12 Mar 2020

I’m not a big fan of sports movies because they are all the same. The first half of The Way Back is like your standard sports movie. You got the bad team that fights with others and each other and is trained by a coach looking for redemption.

They start to get better and win more games. They go to the big game and win. That all happens in the movie in the first half, but the second half is truly special because it’s realistic and human. It takes a different turn for a sports drama and I loved it.

It made sense for Ben Affleck’s character and the choices he made. It was emotionally powerful and uplifting. This was kind of a personal performance for Ben Affleck. He has struggled with alcohol for a long time and recently went to rehab for it.

It doesn’t feel like Affleck is acting, in a good way. His performance is fantastic and is, so far, my favorite performance of the year. He was able to convey so much emotion and harness it from his personal experiences that it was impressive.

The rest of the cast does a decent job but they weren’t as developed as Ben Affleck was. They each have a character trait that defines them and that was about it. The screenplay was pretty good. It isn’t best of the year level but it was a lot better than the other films I have seen this year.

I didn’t take a lot of issue with some of the other technical aspects but I did have an issue with the cinematography. The camera was always shaking. I don’t remember a single steady shot. It made sense for the basketball game sequences but not for any normal scenes.

It also felt amateurish at points. There is a scene that takes place at lunch and the camera zooms in on Ben Affleck but it shifts position halfway through as if the cinematographer forgot to set the shot in frame.

The editing was perfectly fine and the score by Rob Simonsen was good and helped add some emotion to different sequences and scenes. Overall, The Way Back may have a cliched first half with some below average cinematography but the second halves dive away from sport movie cliches along with Ben Affleck’s fantastic performance makes this movie worth watching.