Ben Is Back

Julia Roberts ages like fine wine, always a pleasure to watch, hedges is yet to disappoint, terrific performances, good movie cant complain

I find this film very moving and powerful. Peter Hedges sets a story with all the good elements of drama. Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts combine perfectly their performances and even Kathryn Newton as a secondary role is great. The film gives incredible moments and presents the horror of living with an addict. I still feel pain in my throat.😢

An intimate, incredibly tense drama about a troubled family battling raw emotional pains. Terrific performances by Lucas Hedges and the divine Julia Roberts.

Well that was great from start to finish with a deep impact and good strong cast. I’d of liked to see Ben's past in action as much as being told what happened and what he went through to get to that point in his life.

Overall, it's a good movie, undermined only by a tinge of Hollywood melodrama. Lucas Hedges is a terrific actor, and he turns in excellent work here, and Roberts does too as the mum trying to save his life. Unlike another commenter on this page, I don't think this film is unrealistic. While it is a little cliched at times, it still paints a reasonably realistic portrait of drug addiction. I speak from experience as somebody who has tried to save and protect those who have struggled with the same. Worth a watch then, and a reminder for us not to judge those with addiction; most of us are fortunate not to have to walk in their broken shoes.

Intense family drama. Julia Robert's is at her finest and It seems Lucas Hedges can do no wrong (he's already won the Los Angeles On-line Film Critic's Society award for Best Performance by an actor 23 years of age or under). The subject matter is gritty and confined to a 24 hour period. The ending is abrupt and we are left to finish the story ourselves (did the writer not know how to resolve the questions he was addressing?). All the supporting performances were appropriately powerful/poignant (Kathryn Newton is a bit of a standout). As a point of interest, Lucas is being directed by his dad. I give this film a 7 (good with some great performances) out of 10. [Drama]

I just didn't really care for any of the characters. The performances were fine but the story was a little unrealistic.

_Ben is Back_ is like a drug run. No, wait, like **drugs runs**, is what I meant to say. There's no structure, it's rather messy and I really don't like the way it feels in the end.

My main complaint is that, unlike the chestnut Jackson Pollack I reference above, I have absolutely zero shits to give about any of these characters. I was praying for someone, anyone to die as soon and painfully as possible just to add a little point of interest on this bad trip.

Uninteresting, cliché and Ben adds nothing to a genre which has been better served by films like _Requiem for a Dream_, _A Scanner Darkly_, _Spun_ and, more recently, last year's _Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot_.

You see, for me cinema is a drug and I'm not into downers.