REVIEW: Ben is Back is a powerhouse drugs drama all families can relate to and not recoil from

It’s not very often you see a powerhouse drugs drama all families can relate to and not recoil from. The truth in Ben is Back hurts, but it also heals, writes Leigh Paatsch.

Ben Burns is 19 years old. He is 77 days clean and sober.

In Ben is Back, we wait and we wonder whether he will make it to day 78 in the same state.

Like the recent drug addiction drama Beautiful Boy, Ben is Back looks long and hard at a family who can’t help thinking the best of their troubled eldest son, but also can’t help but expect the worst from him at any moment.

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Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges in a scene from the movie Ben Is Back. Roadshow Films.

It is a very specific and very direct form of tension for a movie to seek to capture. A tension borne equally from a place of unconditional love, as it is from the smouldering ashes of so many bridges burned.

Therefore inviting a viewer sit there and let that tension take hold is a tough ask. Though the plight of those involved may be understandable, the depiction of it can be unbearable.

If Ben is Back does find a way to sweeten a potentially souring deal, it is via the precise and insightful performances delivered by its two principal actors.

Ben is played by Lucas Hedges, one of the finest young names rising rapidly through the ranks right now. Get a load of his last four credits, all of which he excelled in : Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lady Bird and Boy Erased.

Lucas Hedges in a scene from the movie Ben Is Back. Roadshow Films.

This is not an actor merely going places. Lucas Hedges is already there. So it does not take him long to bed down and then rapidly broaden our view of Ben, an otherwise typical teen, save for the fact he has been addicted to opioids since the age of 14.

Going head to head with Hedges throughout Ben is Back is Julia Roberts as Holly, the title character’s mother.

Holly is a woman who has lived through her son’s long struggle with drugs with a love undiminished and a trust almost vanished.

Roberts takes an unconventional read of Holly as someone who is hard-bitten, heartbroken and hopeful, all at the same time. It is a risky approach, but it works wonders for the movie in the long run as Holly hangs in there for her son, come what may.

Julia Roberts in a scene from the movie Ben Is Back. Roadshow Films.

To be honest, Ben is Back is not a perfect movie by any stretch.

The compressed timeframe in which it takes place — Ben shows up unexpectedly on Christmas Eve, and may or may not stick around for the big day itself — puts an added edge on the drama it did not really need.

A few of the supporting characters cannot always justify their presence in certain scenes, as if they are biding their time for one big line of dialogue or incident later on in the movie.

A piece as alive and as true to life as Ben is Back can be could have done without the dead weight.

Nevertheless, Hedges and Roberts are strong and convincing enough to not only make you see the merit of Ben is Back, but also hear its message of unconditional love.

BEN IS BACK (M)

Rating: 3½ stars (out of five)

Director: Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life)

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Kathryn Newton, Courtney B. Vance

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