Reviews: The Way Back Gets Lost in Nihilism

The daylight over Los Angeles seems surprisingly grey and muted throughout “The Way Back,” set in large part inside the remoted coastal neighborhood of San Pedro, in which, in the overdue 1920s, homes toppled into the sea. Although “The Way Back” takes region within the present, a sense of disordered lives pervades this tough-minded studio film, which has the outward trappings of an inspirational sports drama however is by and large a restoration movie. The celebrity, Ben Affleck, has been open about drawing on his very own reports with drinking for the role.

As the “The Way Back” starts offevolved — with a faint clamor of drilling and vehicles before the first shot comes up — Affleck’s character, Jack, is working on a production website online. He is already deep into alcoholism, keeping a dedicated spot in his shower for a lager can. His spouse (Janina Gavankar), from whom he has separated, makes use of his sister (Michaela Watkins) as a cross-among. Jack is given to explosions of anger.

Then a surprising opportunity arises: Father Devine (John Aylward), who runs the Catholic high college in which Jack changed into as soon as a basketball celebrity, informs him that the instruct has had a coronary heart assault. Will Jack step in to help the team, which hasn’t been to the playoffs considering that he became a student?

In a bracing collection, Jack rehearses saying no as he pours again beer after beer from his refrigerator. Then the film, in one of several sudden elisions, jumps past his pronouncing yes; he surely shows up for work. And for a while, training appears to help him control his boozing.

Per style conference, Jack is charged with bringing subject to a ragtag institution. He sees a capability team captain in Brandon (Brandon Wilson), the taciturn son of a once-promising participant (T.K. Carter) Jack recalls. He finds a friendly colleague in the assistant instruct (Al Madrigal). And even though Jack’s salty language and encouragement of roughhousing by the young men — “I will not teach a crew that has been out-toughed,” he tells them — is possibly doubtful as education, the group does enhance, and Jack’s hard edges help “The Way Back” keep away from an experience of squeaky-smooth uplift.

The film is directed through Gavin O’Connor, whose blended-martial-arts drama “Warrior” (2011) additionally brimmed with grit and a sense of location. Working from a script employing Brad Ingelsby, O’Connor finds methods to keep visitors subtly off shield; just when you think “The Way Back” will grow to be a Big Game movie, it reverts to being an addiction drama (after which is going lower back once more).

The volleying shape comes with one massive, regrettable flaw: The film withholds a crucial little bit of lower back story in early scenes most effective to drop it like an anvil later on. Since the revelation is known to the characters the entire time, the selection to installation it as a surprise is cheap and shameless — a blatant foul in a movie in any other case full of easily done performs.