Hedges’ son, Lucas—who has put together a string of strong work in just the past couple of years between “Manchester By the Sea,” “Lady Bird,” “Boy Erased” and “mid90s”—stars as the title character, a charismatic young man who radiates a combination of enthusiasm and understandable unease. His relationship with Julia Roberts as his mother, Holly, provides the film with its vivid heart. You can feel every conflicting emotion she’s experiencing as she pulls up to the family’s house with her other kids in tow and is stunned at the sight of her eldest, a hoodied 19-year-old standing awkwardly in the driveway. She’s thrilled and terrified, and the brilliantly expressive Roberts makes both of those sensations visible simultaneously.
“Ben Is Back” takes place in snowy, idyllic, small-town New York, and Ben comes from a family of comfort and means. Holly has two kids with her second husband (Courtney B. Vance) in addition to Ben and his younger sister, Ivy (Kathryn Newton), from her first. The spacious house is bustling with excitement and preparations for the kids’ performances at Christmas Eve mass. The disease of addiction can afflict anyone, anywhere, Hedges reminds us, just as “Beautiful Boy” did earlier this year.
Holly is eager to make Ben’s unexpected arrival seem as normal as possible, laughing too hard at his jokes and buzzing about the kitchen in a flurry of activity. But she’s also been burned enough times to know that she must quickly and quietly clean out the pills from her medicine cabinet and gather valuables from her jewelry box. Ben’s a charmer and a talker—he’ll burst into a silly song to amuse the little ones—and it’s clear that he’s trying strenuously, as well, to make his return a happy one. But he’s also apprehensive about going into certain rooms in the house—like the attic, where he used to stash his drugs—for fear of the memories they’ll conjure.
Hedges’ direction is efficient and understated in these scenes. The moments between Ben and Holly talking in the kitchen or tackling crowds at the mall during some last-minute shopping are the film’s strongest. He wisely lets his actors act, giving them space to indicate so much in just a meaningful look. What they don’t say to each other is as important as what they do say. At the same time, a monologue Hedges delivers when Ben shares at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting is a powerful example of this young actor’s range, from swagger to introspection and, ultimately, regret.
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