Thursday, March 28, 2019

"Ben is Back" Takes a Hard Look at Opioid Addiction



by John Zenoni


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I watched an amazing film tonight on a very relevant topic - the ever increasing opioid addiction. “Ben is Back” is an excellent film with outstanding performances by Julia Roberts, who plays Ben’s mom Holly, and Lucas Hedges, who plays Ben. 

Ben is an addict and you realize this from the very beginning of the movie. The minute he shows up at his family home, his younger sister nervously calls her stepdad to hurry and get home. She does love him but it's implied that he has been nothing but trouble for the family in the past because of his addiction. Ben is home because he hopes to ‘do things right’ this time but he's an addict and his actions indicate that it's going to be very difficult to stay clean. This is a very hard film to watch because it's not pleasant or joyful. But it's an important film because of the way it portrays the problem of addiction. 

As stated, the acting is phenomenal and there's one scene in particular that just rips your heart out. Lucas Hedges has been in several good movies in the past couple of years and he's definitely high on my list of great actors. Highly recommend this one.



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