Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri) had much early Oscar buzz surrounding his name for his work in Boy Erased. I was as hyped as anyone for that movie and that performance. As I mentioned in my review, Boy Erased was based on a book I had read before, and I knew there was a movie to be made on it (which rarely happens). I liked the book and appreciated its adaptation into a film. It deals with a controversial issue that I have strong thoughts on, and I wanted to see how it played out on film. And with a cast of Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, and Russell Crowe, I thought it would definitely be a Top 10 contender. However, it completely underwhelmed, and Hedges’ performance in the film was not as great as I expected. I did not expect Hedges to dominate every screen he was in during two other 2018 performances after the release of that October. However, he was fantastic as the bully of an older brother in the handful of scenes he was in Mid90s (a film that had no other name actors besides him. He set the screen on fire, matching Hollywood’s finest actress over the last 25 years, Julia Roberts (August Osage County, Erin Brokovich), in the under-the-radar, poignant Ben is Back.

This movie is a tale of two halves. The first half is a character study of a son ruined by his drug addiction and his mother, who has done, is doing, and will always continue to do all she can to protect and love him. At 19 years of age, Ben is still young. While he has burned many bridges and lost the trust of all who know him, we do not know if the last stand by the family was an intervention to send him to rehab while detailing all of the consequences if he doesn’t. We can’t assume he won’t go to the sober living facility on his own, either. But what we do know is that this young man is 77 days sober and believes he has a gentle grasp on his addiction. He and we know very well that he has not conquered his demons. At every turn in this movie is the temptation to use or a haunting memory that evokes a profoundly pessimistic, thought-provoking emotional response in him. Hedges plays Ben in a way that makes you cheer for him and also examine the relationships in your own life and either be glad that a loved one (like a child) hasn’t succumbed to the massive grip of drug addiction or reinforce its colossal impact if that loved one has. Ben has hurt people, both in his family and outside of it. Drugs have ruined his life, and their hold on him, whether he ever uses them again or not, will continue to have their impact. In addition to hurting his loved one, Ben also wronged many people in social circles that no one wants to be part of, and now that he is home, they are ready to collect.

There is no glaring problem with Ben is Back. I mention that it is a tale of two halves. It evolves into something entirely different when the movie reaches its halfway point. When this happens in many movies, it destroys everything the first half established. This occurs much more frequently in movies than we care to remember. That didn’t happen here. While different, the second half of the film was about Ben having to correct some of his mistakes. I’ve read in a couple of other reviews that it goes from a family drama to a mild suspense/mystery/thriller. That wasn’t the case at all. Sure, there was some intrigue about what would ultimately happen to Ben as he returned to some of his old grounds, places he likely wished in his most ideal of dreams that he would never visit again. However, the situational locations and some of the other scenes planted before aren’t inserted to transition this into some sort of thriller. Instead, they are added to see Holly’s perspective of her son from old and new angles. Roberts is riveting as a mother who thought she knew everything about her son and all of his demons, only to realize that she knew nothing about him at all. It’s as if she’s witnessing his rebirth, but this time, it’s not in the comforts of her loving arms but in the seedy underworld of drugs that robbed him of all of his innocence. And she’s mad as hell, and it’s not at him at all.

Roberts delivers her best performance since 2013’s August: Osage County and one of the best of her storied career. And this is Hedges’ best performance of his young career. Unfortunately, voters will overlook both of these performances. It just feels like this is a different story than what voters look for. Some of these Awards programs have their minds made up about their potential list of nominees before they even see the movie. Of course, there are anomalies, but they are exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. It’s almost as if Ben is Back was hurt by not being based on a true story when, in fact, no story could be more accurate.

Sure, the events in this movie might not have happened in sequence and may never have occurred by a mom named Holly and a son named Ben, and, yes, the circumstances in which Holly drove herself to protect her son may be a little far-fetched. Most of the scenes with Ivy felt like she was trying too hard to be the family conscience, but this movie rounded into form. Each character felt three-dimensional. The strain experienced by both Holly and Ben was one that we wouldn’t wish upon anyone. We never felt safe with each character. We understood the toll that drugs had taken on both Ben and his family, and despite how well he was doing as the film began, we knew that trouble was always around the bend. But we didn’t know how it would strike or its devastating consequences. Until the end, we hold our breath, hoping for the best and fearing for the worst.

Ben is Back is fascinating. It is the family drama that we have been missing all year. As good as the intentions of Boy Erased, Beautiful Boy, Leave No Trace, and others were in 2018, those films failed to deliver the knockout punch that Ben is Back brought from the tender first scenes to the harrowing final scenes. Hedges’ film smacks you across this face in a way that is a wake-up punch to hold your children as closely as you can and to remind you that there are evils to this world that are beyond imaginable.