Rated: M
Directed and Written by: Peter Hedges
Produced by: Peter Hedges, Nina Jacobson, Teddy Schwarzman, Brad Simpson
Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Rachel Bay Jones, David Zaldivar, Alexandra Park, Mia Fowler, Jakari Fraser.
It’s Christmas time. Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is singing in the church choir while her mother, Holly (Julia Roberts) looks on with her two youngest from her second marriage, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and Liam (Jakari Fraser).
The snow is falling as Ben (Lucas Hedges) crunches across the yard towards the house.
He knows no one is home.
Ben is back
This is a film about addiction. About the hold it takes and the effect on family and a mother who refuses to give up on her son.
Sounds dramatic, right?
I went into the cinema expecting a traumatic, family drama to unfold with Julia Roberts as the mother weeping and screaming the whole way through…
But there’s restraint from director (and writer) Peter Hedges, allowing the writing to tell the story without the need for over-acting – the story made more emotive because of the quiet telling.
It feels like the film is about someone Hedges knows; a brave move casting his son, Lucas Hedges as the son in the film, learning to live with all his actions as an addict, returning home to try again as he struggles to share his need.
Lucas is perfect for this role.
There’s something so genuine in his manner. I first saw him in his role as Jared (a young man trapped in a re-education program, Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of his homosexuality) in Boy Erased.
He’s brought the same believability here: the charisma, the cunning, the pain.
And Julia Roberts nailed her role as his mother, knowing she’ll never stop trying, never let go.
It’s a sad and heavy tale as Ben takes his mother to re-visit his past as a junkie; the danger and humiliation endured to feed his addiction. There’s insight into the pain and grip the drug takes on a person and cost of all those who love them.
I’m not saying I overly enjoyed watching this film, but I’m impressed by the way this film was shown. Without getting slapped in the face, we get to see the sadistic nature of addiction and the consequences on a family that feels very like any other normal family.
We’re also shown the view from the addict – the initial want to share the experience because they think they’ve found a truth worth sharing. People become addicts for a reason.
The film doesn’t demonise the user, it’s more about understanding.
‘When you get shaky, go to a meeting,’
There’s a lot of debate currently about harm-minimisation, with the recent deaths over New Year at music festivals because of drug over-dose. It’s easy to say yes, I think that legal drug-testing onsite to see the ingredients is a good idea. I personally think it would make the dealers sell a far more pure product. But the reminder of the addictive nature of drugs shown in this films demonstrates the ripple of catastrophic consequences addiction has on the user, families and communities.
Holding a pack with the brown heroin showing through, Ben’s mother, Holly personalises the substance by saying, ‘You monster’.
And that’s what the film manages to achieve, a personalisation of addiction.
