Ben Is Back

"Just tell me, son, where you want me to bury you."

"Just tell me, son, where you want me to bury you" is one of the many lines from this film that leaves your blood running cold and your mouth agape. This isn’t a surprise, of course, coming from a film that literally floors you from the amount of emotion and power it has. The story follows 19 year old Ben, who unexpectedly returns home on Christmas Eve after being in rehab for a year because of his life-threatening drug addiction.

A large part of this film’s power comes from the magnificent performances given, most notably that of which was Holly Burns, the passionate and forgiving mother desperate to have her troubled son back in her life, portrayed by the ever-sublime Julia Roberts. The performance is sure to linger on your mind in the coming days after watching this. People are so quick to forget about Julia Roberts, perhaps because of the never-ending list of romcoms in her filmography, but she proves here yet again that she is someone who should always be on your radar, with a portrayal that literally exudes heartbreak and a mother’s inexhaustible love for her son.

You can’t help but draw comparisons to Beautiful Boy (2018), the Felix Van Groeningen directed melodrama starring Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell, which sees a father struggle to come to terms with his brilliant son’s drug addiction. Sadly, Ben Is Back doesn’t quite live up to its competitor. It was more consistent in its storytelling and perhaps more intense, but didn’t quite hit home as hard. It’s a shame that they were released so close together, because they both had a lot of merit and people will inevitably lump them together.

Into the second act of Ben Is Back, you can slowly feel it turn uneasily from being a heart-wrenching story about a family coming back together after being torn apart, to being an almost thriller surrounding crime, drug distribution and dealing. This turn of events felt very rough and conflicting, and meant that the film as a whole lost some of the emotional touch.

Whilst the prioritizing of the drug dealing storyline over the recovery was disappointing, this film remained compelling throughout and was never boring. It wasn’t afraid to paint Ben as a deceitful liar, whilst also reiterating that he was the victim. It was a very jarring story and also didn’t hesitate to show the effects of Ben’s behaviour on his family, with many of his family members being apprehensive about his return home.

Despite sometimes coming across as uneven, this film was overwhelmingly honest and harsh in its storytelling, which made it all the worthwhile.

★★★½