X
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 43 m
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 43 m
Summary 19 year-old Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges) unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben’s mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everythi...
Directed By: Peter Hedges
Written By: Peter Hedges
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 43 m
- 2018
- R
- Roadside Attractions
- 1 h 43 m
Ben Is Back
66
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary 19 year-old Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges) unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben’s mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everythi...
Directed By: Peter Hedges
Written By: Peter Hedges
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 39 Critic Reviews
66
72% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
28% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 39 Critic Reviews
66
72% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
28% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
What makes Ben Is Back different is that, even if this kind of pain is completely outside your own experience, you’ll feel some of it watching this movie.
There is a clarity to every performance from start to finish, from Roberts all the way down. Yes, the thriller elements that are introduced never fully connect with the tone of the overall experience, but it’s a minuscule criticism.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 58 User Ratings
6.8
64% Positive
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
31% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
5% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 58 User Ratings
6.8
64% Positive
37 Ratings
37 Ratings
31% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
5% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Very good performances by Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges. very engaging plot, with an ending that escapes the obvious.
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This addiction drama is primarily a showcase for its superb leading performers, and in its compressed time frame (24 hours around Christmas) it feels like a well-made play more than a fully amplified feature film. The acting is enough, though.
It’s a good idea done well until the last 20 minutes, when the leap from a realistic addiction drama to a hair’s-breadth Hollywood rescue movie is too jarring to ignore.
It’s an uneven film, but a deeply passionate one that also features an A-list actress at the top of her game.
The tight time frame gives the movie a welcome urgency, but it doesn’t prevent its second half from becoming lurid and melodramatic.
There are good intentions and good performances here, but they’re squandered in a movie that isn’t quite sure what it should be and how far it should go.
Inline image
“Ben Is Back” hands down is the most emotional movie of the year. It opens with Holly (Julia Roberts) coming home from church with three of her four children who have been practicing for the Christmas pageant. Upon the arrival she is first shocked and then overjoyed to see her son Ben (Lucas Hedges) standing in the driveway. He had been staying in rehab, not allowed to leave, recovering from his drug habit once again but tells her that his sponsor and the head of the sober-living facility had Okayed the trip.
Ben’s younger half-sister, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and half-brother Liam (Jakari Fraser), adore him as does the family dog. Ben’s sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is angry with him from previous experiences while his stepfather Neal (Courtney B. Vance) wonders aloud, “How many chances are we, the family, suppose to give Ben?” He also questions what Ben’s fate would have been if he was a black boy.
Without giving any spoilers the gist of the movie is that Ben must spend every minute of the 24 hours he will be home under the eye of his mother, including when he has to take a urinating drug test which brings some humor into a dark film concentrating on a mother’s love for a child that is the strongest love of all.
Aside from strong performances of Fowler, Fraser, Newton and Vance, there is a cameo by Rachel Bay Jones as a mother who lost her daughter to drugs and David Zaldivar and Michael Esper as part of Ben’s past.
Peter Hedges wrote and directed this film and does a fine job in both departments not overdoing either the family, rehab or drug scenes. The musical soundtrack is unobtrusive which is quite rare in films these days.
What makes this film special are the two commanding performances of the leads.
In 2016 Lucas Hedges, yes he is the son of Peter Hedges, was nominated for a best-supporting actor in his role in “Manchester by the Sea” and last month he played the **** son in “Boy Erased” who was sent to a conversion camp. In this film he lets you see what and how drugs affect a boy’s life mentally and physically and the pain he has caused his family is there on his face.
In 2000 when Julia Roberts was accepting her Oscar for Best Actress in “Erin Brockovich” the orchestra started to play her off but she stopped them saying that this may be her only chance and I hope this film proves her wrong. Roberts has a lot of stiff competition in the Best Actress category this year---sorry Glenn Close, I was rooting for you up to this point—but she gives a performance of a woman who did/does the best by her children and will fight for them no matter the cost if she feels they are right, that will touch you and move you to tears.
“Ben Is Back” is not really a “Christmas movie” but it is a heartfelt movie that will affect the parent in you whether you have children or not.
The movie and the performances by Roberts and Hedges make it a definite ‘Must See’.
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Why is this film being ignored (and, in some cases, unfairly bashed)? "Ben Is Back" is easily one of the best offerings of the year, featuring a well-integrated fusion of family drama and crime thriller. Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges turn in knock-out performances worthy of awards consideration for their range of emotion and powerful delivery, and the film's well-crafted screenplay serves up an excellent mix of heartfelt emotion, gritty intensity, shocking revelation, pointed comic relief and deftly nuanced subtlety. Sadly, this appears to be one of those releases that's simply going to be ignored for honors and accolades, and that's truly unfortunate, as this is quite an unexpected gem.
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I can't say that there's anything wrong with this movie. It had great acting and cinematography. However, I simply didn't like it. Maybe it's because I grew up in a home riddled with drug and alcohol addiction? That's the only reason I can name for why I disliked--maybe even hated?--this movie and its ending.
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Julia Roberts' performance is outstanding, but it's not nearly enough to save yet another tedious movie about addiction. They always end the same way, they're always a bummer.
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Written and directed by Peter Hedges, Ben is Back takes the interesting approach of framing a story of drug addiction as a thriller. While the performances of his son Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts are fantastic, the movie doesn't really know what it is trying to say. On top of that, it feels very easy and very "Chicken Soup for the Soul." The plot is overly dramatic and relies way too heavily on thriller tropes rather than an actual portrayal of drug addiction. While on it's own, this isn't necessarily bad, it becomes bad when there are as many plot holes as there are in Ben is Back. However, the cinematography is great, and there are some really beautiful night scenes. All in all, Ben is Back isn't groundbreaking, but it's not bad either.
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Production Company
Black Bear,
30WEST,
Color Force,
Sierra / Affinity
Release Date Dec 7, 2018
Duration 1 h 43 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline One family. One day.
Awards
AARP Movies for Grownups Awards
• 3 Nominations
Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
CinEuphoria Awards
• 2 Nominations
