It’s been a wild, wild decade for Ben Affleck. On the one hand, you’ve got his excellent work in films like Gone Girl and Triple Frontier, on the other, you’ve got his whole involvement with that DCEU mess (even though he was a great Batman!). In the midst of all that was Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant, which was one hell of a goofy and compelling Dad movie, which you can probably still find airing on your local TBS Superstation in the afternoon. Now, O’Connor and Affleck have re-teamed for a very different sort of project, The Way Back (not to be confused with the Peter Weir film of the same name). It seems to be more in the vein of O’Connor’s Warrior than anything else he’s done since and the film features Affleck as a high school basketball coach struggling with addiction and failure. Warner Bros. dropped a trailer for the film earlier on Thursday, and it definitely looks pretty good.
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s a pretty lengthy synopsis:
“Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) once had a life filled with promise. In high school, he was a basketball phenom with a full university scholarship, when suddenly, for reasons unknown, he walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Now years later, Jack is spiraling down, triggered by an unspeakable loss, and drowning in the alcoholism that cost him his marriage and any hope for a better life. When he is asked to coach the basketball team at his alma mater, which has fallen far since his glory days, he reluctantly accepts, surprising no one more than himself. As the boys start to come together as a team and win, Jack may have finally found a reason to confront the demons that have derailed him. But will it be enough to fill the void, heal the deep wounds of his past, and set him on the road to redemption?”
The Way Back hits theaters on March 6, 2020. Perhaps put all the Sad Affleck memes to bed for this one, guys?