Ben is back

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Movie
Original title Ben is back
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2018
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Hedges
script Peter Hedges
music Dickon Hinchliffe
camera Stuart Dryburgh
cut Ian flower
occupation

Ben is Back is a drama film directed by Peter Hedges that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018 and was released in US theaters on December 7, 2018.

action

It's Christmas, and Holly Burns is just returning from a rehearsal for the Christmas service with three of her four children when an unexpected guest arrives at the door. It's about her son Ben, who was in a rehab clinic that he shouldn't leave. Ben has been clean for seventy-seven days. While Ben's younger sister, Ivy, and stepfather, Neal, are skeptical, Holly begins hiding all medication and jewelry around the house and sets a new rule that her son can't even go to the bathroom without leaving the door open . After Ben has passed his mother's rapid drug test, he is supposed to be allowed to stay one day before going back to the rehab clinic.

Since Ben still needs presents for his two half-siblings Lacey and Liam, they go shopping together. In the mall, Ben meets several old friends and former customers. It quickly spreads around town that Ben is back. Holly also accompanies her son in town to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, where Ben is open about his addiction and feelings.

Back home, Ben does his best to integrate into family life, playing with his younger half-brother and half-sister and his beloved dog Ponce. Despite the feeling of Christmas, Ben isn't sure he can return to his happy old life. His mother tries with all her might to make this possible for him. When they attend Christmas mass, the only day of the year that they go to church, they see Beth Conyers, the mother of a former friend of Ben, for whose drug addiction he feels responsible. When they return home, the door has been broken open, the Christmas tree knocked over and Ponce is missing. Ben suspects that people he knows from the drug scene could have something to do with it.

Together with his mother, he sets out to bring Ponce back. They want to do this one by one, and the list of possible hijackers is long. In conversations with Ben about the time before his withdrawal, Holly learns things about her son that she really didn't want to know about. Ben explains to her that if she knew what he had done in the past, she could no longer love him. She learns that Ben put himself in the service of his former history teacher and robbed people to get drugs. He lied to her again during his current visit. At the Narcotics Anonymous meeting, he did not take the letter with drugs that Holly found on his shopping spree from a young woman to protect her, but found it while rummaging through the Christmas decorations in the attic of her house. The drugs always gave him a feeling that even his mother couldn't. Holly still doesn't want to give up on her son.

When Ben drives off in the car to go alone in search of Ponce, Holly borrows a car from Beth and tries to find her son in turn. After Ben agrees to act as a drug courier for his former colleagues one last time, he gets Ponce back. Holly finds the dog in her car parked by the river and her son lifeless in a vacant house nearby, but is able to bring Ben back to life.

production

Directed by Peter Hedges , who also writes the script. Hedges tells the story over a period of 24 hours. The soundtrack is composed by Dickon Hinchliffe . The soundtrack to the film, which comprises a total of 14 pieces of music, was released for download by Varese Sarabande on December 7, 2018.

Julia Roberts plays Holly Burns, Lucas Hedges , the director's son, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Manchester by the Sea in 2017 , received the title role of drug addict Ben. Roberts has been nominated four times for an Oscar and was named Best Actress in 2001 for Erin Brockovich . Courtney B. Vance stars as Ben's stepfather Neal Burns, while Kathryn Newton plays Ben's sister Ivy. Michael Esper took on the role of a drug dealer named Clayton, one of Ben's old pals.

Filming started in December 2017. The cameraman is Stuart Dryburgh , who was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his work for The Piano .

The film celebrated its world premiere on September 8, 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival . LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have jointly acquired the distribution rights in the USA and released the film in US theaters on December 7, 2018. A theatrical release in Germany took place on January 10, 2019.

reception

Age rating and film genre

In the USA, the film received an R rating from the MPAA , which corresponds to a rating of 17 and over. In Germany it was approved by the FSK from the age of 12. The statement of reasons for the release states: “The story about family ties and abysses focuses primarily on the strained mother-son relationship and is characterized by a melancholy, sometimes threatening atmosphere. In the course of the plot also of high drama. "

Anke Sterneborg from epd Film remarks that, as in his earlier films, director Peter Hedges also used a keen sense for the fragile love and family relationships between comedy and tragedy in Ben is Back . Sterneborg speaks of a first, very familiar half of the film, but in the second the pace accelerates, and with the criminal entanglements from the past, the intimate family drama turns into a dramatic crime thriller.

Reviews and grossing results

So far, the film has received approval from 82 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and achieved an average rating of 6.9 out of a possible 10 points.

Lucas Hedges plays the title role of Ben Burns in the film.

Deadline.com's Patrick Hipes says that in addition to a strong anti-drug message, Ben is Back is a compelling and powerful film about a family in crisis. Julia Roberts shows in the film in the role of the determined mother Holly Burns, who is ready to do anything to save her son from the crash, her best acting performance since receiving the Oscar for Erin Brockovich 18 years earlier. Also, Lucas Hedges , who plays her son Ben can, be brought by his role again this week for an Oscar after two years earlier for his role in Manchester by the Sea had been nominated for this, so Hipes. The film critic goes on to explain that the beautifully crafted script is only slowly revealing its problems with drug addiction.

Martin Schwickert remarks in the Augsburger Allgemeine on the blindness and uncompromisingness of Holly's motherly love, director Peter Hedges does not glorify this unconditional love, but is looking for a solidary, but also ambivalent view of its irrevocability. In a compact 24-hour narrative format, Ben Is Back shows the enormous destructive potential of drug abuse on the family structure and the mother-child relationship, and Lucas Hedges is outstanding in the role of the addict who is trapped in his own guilt-narcissism and against powerful ones Has to fight demons from the past, so Schwickert. For Julia Roberts, this is by far the best role since Erin Brockovich , which she fulfills with enormous presence and an impressive ability to differentiate.

The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore says Holly does something in the movie the kind of detective work that real parents do every day, for example when she borrows a car to find Ben, who is driving her own car. Regarding the work of Peter Hedges , the film critic notes that it is a special achievement to provide Ben with the narcissism that is typical of a recovering addict who blames himself but has no self-pity. You couldn't say whether he was being absolutely sincere in his therapy talk or whether he was concealing rationalizations for his risky behavior, but maybe Ben wasn't sure himself, says DeFore.

For Peter Debruge of Variety Ben is as an addict also a perfect liar whose every utterance could be useful to get what he wants. As a viewer you try to question your intentions, which makes the script all the smarter. Hedges sometimes try too hard to convey messages. Instead of putting these ideas directly into words to deliver the subtext, the film is most effective when it simply trusts its actors, says Debruge.

The film's worldwide revenue from theatrical screenings is more than $ 9 million.

Awards (selection)

Toronto International Film Festival 2018

  • Nomination in the category Special Presentations ( Peter Hedges )

synchronization

The German dubbing was created after the dialogue direction by Monica Bielenstein and a dialogue book by Claudia Sander on behalf of Splendid Synchron GmbH, Berlin.

actor Voice actor role
Julia Roberts Daniela Hoffmann Holly Burns
Lucas Hedges Patrick Baehr Ben Burns
Kathryn Newton Jodie Blank Ivy Burns
Courtney B. Vance Oliver Stritzel Neal Burns
Mia Fowler Juliana Götz Lacey Burns-Beeby
Jakari Fraser Joel Schäfer Liam Burns-Beeby
Michael Esper Bastian Sierich Clayton
David Zaldivar Leonard Mahlich Spencer "Spider" Webbs
Rachel Bay Jones Katrin Zimmermann Beth Conyers

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Ben is Back . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 185400 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ A b DPA-Starline: Film: Julia Roberts: New film in time for the Oscar season. In: Focus Online . July 10, 2018, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  3. ↑ https://www.tiff.net/tiff/ben-is-back/
  4. ^ Dickon Hinchliffe Scoring Peter Hedges 'Ben Is Back'. In: filmmusicreporter.com, August 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ https://filmmusicreporter.com/2018/12/06/ben-is-back-soundtrack-details/
  6. ↑ https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/ben-is-back-review-julia-roberts-1202933725/
  7. ↑ Amanda N'Duka: Courtney B. Vance Joins Julia Roberts & Lucas Hedges In 'Ben Is Back'. In: deadline.com, December 5, 2017.
  8. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ Reason for approval for Ben is Back In: Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  10. ↑ https://www.epd-film.de/filmkritiken/ben-back
  11. ↑ Ben is Back. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 18, 2019. Note: The Tomatometer is the percentage of Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critics who gave the film a positive rating.
  12. ↑ https://deadline.com/video/ben-is-back-review-julia-roberts-lucas-hedges-movie-video/
  13. ↑ https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/augsburg/Ben-is-Back-im-Kino-Eine-Mutter-gibt-ihr-Kind-nicht-verloren-id53134431.html
  14. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/ben-is-back-review-1141218
  15. ↑ https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/ben-is-back-review-julia-roberts-1202933725/
  16. ↑ https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=benisback.htm