Beautiful Boy and Ben is Back

As two awards-season films about parents and children struggling with the latter's addictions, Beautiful Boy and Ben is Back were always going to be linked.  The funny thing is that the movies take very different routes to get to much the same place, without ever being particularly good.

Beautiful Boy is based on the memoirs of both a father and his son.  It jumps around in time, examining how the son fell into addiction and how he struggled to get clean.  This approach feels like a good way to get at the truth of what really happened.  But the movie just sort of floats along, struggling to find its bearings.

Ben is Back puts a lot more narrative meat on the bone, making it both more compelling and more contrived.  When the son returns home from rehab for an ill-advised Christmas visit, someone breaks into his family's house and steals their dog.  He and his mother go on a journey to save the dog, reflect on how things got so bad, and prevent the son from relapsing or dying (which might be the same thing).

There are certain movies where the protagonist has to go up against something much bigger than herself.  It could be a natural disaster.  It could be sharks or dinosaurs.  It could be cancer.  Or it could be a parent battling a child's addiction.  In such cases, there isn't much opportunity for interesting drama.  There might be thrills, but the heroes' choices are severely curtailed; all they can do is try their best and hope for good fortune.

Another challenge for addiction movies is that there isn't much room for subtlety or nuance.  Every sideways glance is freighted with meaning, a sign that the characters aren't being totally honest with one another.  Every 30 second period alone is a chance for the addict to relapse.  And there aren't many grey areas in films like these: the addict is either on the wagon or falling back off.

Ben is Back tries to solve this problem by injecting some suspense into whether the addict is really being honest or is just looking for opportunities to get high.  And the actors all give committed performances.  But the script barely has to do any work to turn up the histrionics.  It's a bit like watching a movie about a sick puppy.  Its heavy emotions don't quite feel earned.