Tanya’s Score: Good-and-a-half*
Rated: 14A
Starring: the cuter and more ubiquitous version of Jesse Eisenberg – Lucas Hedges; the poster woman for “this is 50” – Julia Roberts
Plot: A drug-addicted young man (Lucas Hedges) shows up unexpectedly at his family’s house on Christmas Eve which sets off 24-hours of extreme turmoil for everyone involved.
Tanya’s Verdict: This was one of those movies where I was pretty sure I enjoyed it – but I needed the dust to settle after watching it in order to be sure. A seemingly simple story (on the surface) that takes place over the course of less than 24 hours but there is so much going on. At the heart of the plot, is the focus on the troubled relationship and complicated love between a mother and her addict son.
Julia Roberts shines in this movie. She is beautiful and polished and happy – yet it doesn’t take much to show cracks in her veneer. Her tone changes from elated to suspicious; from openly honest to desperately deceitful from one scene to the next. One scene in particular where she is at the mall and runs into an elderly couple from her past is extremely significant in terms of the sudden dark tone the movie takes as well as the shift in Roberts’ character. The scene has an edginess to it – it marked the beginning (for me) of where I realized this movie was heading.
While Beautiful Boy is based on the real-life memoirs of a father and son struggling through addiction and takes place over a longer length of time, Ben Is Back is the fictional story of a desperate yet hopeful, loving yet hard-nosed mother willing to do whatever it takes to save her child – shown over a 24-hour period.
*Four score descriptions: Sh**; Okay; Good; Great