The Way Back
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: March 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 10, 2020
Affleck has made no secret of his struggles with alcohol and has talked about the catharsis he experienced shooting Finding the Way Back. It’s a career-best performance, one that marries hulking physicality and internalised demons, as Jack battles grief and addiction. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerJul 9, 2020
It cleaves closely to the familiar, but Finding The Way Back scores points by finding different beats within the formula and from a great Ben Affleck performance. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 4, 2020
It’s a performance that suggests the most interesting stretch of Affleck’s career as an actor is still to come. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMar 4, 2020
The movie withholds a crucial bit of back story in early scenes only to drop it like an anvil later on. Since the revelation is known to the characters the whole time, the decision to deploy it as a surprise is cheap and shameless — a blatant foul in a movie otherwise filled with smoothly executed plays. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 5, 2020
The Way Back is a dull if somewhat likable nothing of a sports melodrama. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 4, 2020
The Way Back is the first real Sad Ben film. It’s earnest and old-fashioned and sturdily made, and I wish that were enough to make it good. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 4, 2020
Cornball? Maybe. But it helps that O’Connor dexterously avoids the usual lump-in-the-throat tearjerking. And it helps even more that the star radiates a soul-deep belief that it’s the small steps that matter more than a rah-rah victory. He makes us root for Jack — just us The Way Back makes us root for Affleck, no matter how long the road ahead. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 4, 2020
I’d love to see Affleck star in a film about an addict with nothing to explain his addiction but his own flawed, desperate, hungry soul. That’s a movie that could speak to us — the way that Ben Affleck’s real story already does — far more than this modestly well-made Sunday-school lesson. Read full review
40
Time OutTomris LafflyMar 5, 2020
Ben Affleck steps back in front of the camera in a weighty but weary comeback drama that feels like catharsis. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMar 4, 2020
It sleepily hits the beats we expect but without the emotion or passion required to make them land, a by-the-numbers exercise from someone with barely enough energy to count. Read full review
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