BEN IS BACK – Review

Earnest and predictable, I can’t think of a single scene that stands out in writer/director Peter Hedges’ new drug addiction drama BEN IS BACK. It may have its heart in the right place, but boy is it lousy. Unlike this year’s similar BEAUTIFUL BOY, BEN IS BACK does not portray the downward spiral of drugs but instead takes place over one 24-hour Christmas Eve. By the time we meet 19-year Ben (Lucas Hedges – the director’s son!), he’s a young drug abuser returning home having been in rehab for 77 days and swearing “This time it will be different”. His mom Holly (Julia Roberts) acts happy to see him, yet the first thing she does is scramble to hide all the pills in the medicine cabinet. Ben’s younger sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) claims to loves her brother but is clearly worried he’s going to ruin everyone’s holiday (he does!). The rest of the brood consists of Holly’s second husband Neal (Courtney B. Vance), who’s paid for all of Ben’s treatments, a pair of much younger half-siblings, and Ponce the dog.

The first half of BEN IS BACK depicts how one member can fracture an entire family, no matter how well-adjusted they may be. Unlike Ben’s sister, his mom is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and naively trusts that his old habits won’t catch up to him. This consists of many scenes of Holly hovering over Ben like a hawk, accompanying him to his rehab meeting and even into the bathroom while he pees, just to keep her eye on him. Ben and Ivy climb up to the attic to find Xmas decorations where he has a panic attack since that’s where he used to hide his drugs. At the film’s midpoint, BEN IS BACK runs out of mopey things to say about the mother/son dynamic and changes direction by introducing  thriller elements. Holly and her son decide to spend time together at a shopping mall, where Ben is spotted by some of his former drug dealers and clients riding up escalators, glaring at him menacingly while he’s trying to dine at the food court. This is where the film takes its turn into a more conventional crime drama. Apparently Ben owes some of these dealers money so they break into his home and kidnap poor Ponce. Holly and Ben’s all-night searched for the pinched pooch is ridiculous and feels like padding but it does pick up the pace from the dull first half.

The sensitive and anguished performances by Roberts and Hedges are effective in their intended, irritatingly Oscar-bait way. The aforementioned mall is also the setting for Roberts’ showiest grandstanding when Holly confronts the now Alzheimer’s -addled doctor who’d prescribed Ben painkillers years earlier for a hockey injury, a remedy she blames for her son’s messy current state. Roberts spits out this scene’s angry dialog in in a most actor-ly way, but the fact that screenwriter Hedges chooses to give this minor character dementia, unable to respond, seemed like a cheap shot. Why not make him clear-headed so these two can have an honest debate about doctor-patient ethics? As the scene is written, Holly comes off as a bully. Lucas Hedges displays the same downcast sensitivity that critics embraced in the recent BOY ERASED, but he seems to be playing the same weepy character here, one that’s a drag to be around. BEN IS BACK is never entertaining or informative and it runs out of lectures to give long before its morally questionable climax (I’m still unsure whether that’s a happy ending or a sad one).  After having just seen BOY ERASED and BEAUTIFUL BOY, I found BEN IS BACK dramatically flat, lacking any style or emotional punch and easily the worst of these three similar films. And I didn’t much care for those other two!

1 1/2 of 5 Stars