THE WAY BACK with Ben Affleck is Awful - Stay Away

Ben Affleck's "comeback" flick may have set his muddling career further back with this cliched mess of a down & out drunkard coaching a losing sad sack basketball to a winning season.  There's no reason to recommend this film although there are plenty of shots to be made at how inane and unappealing this film shaped-up.  Jack (a phoned in performance by Affleck) is a constructor worker who heads to the bar after work.  He drinks until he can no longer stand & gets a helping hand from an old friend of his dad's.  Once home, his drinking binge continues ad nauseam.  He's known by the locals at the local grungy pub and liquor store.  Jack in one shop, stocks up on enough alcohol to keep a frat house in booze for a semester.  Jack's heading to Thanksgiving dinner with his sis & her family in their affluent digs where sis gets in a few digs about his drinking. His temper flares when sis mentions hearing from Angie, his estranged wife, asking how he's doing.  Did she leave Jack because of his drinking?  Or, did her leaving exacerbate his alcoholism?  Do we care? NO!  It's all a bore.  Jack receives a call from the priest of his former high school asking him to coach the school's basketball team.  Jack, in his glory days, was a whiz on the court but sometime after h.s. he fizzled out.  Not surprisingly he takes the thankless job of turning the bad news bears team (which all look like they're in their late 20s) into a team with grit and miraculously gets them to the playoffs.  The emotional payoff is hallow pathos.  We learn he & his wife lost their young son to cancer.  Jack (inappropriately) shares with a kid on the team he had an unloving father.   Jack grieves for his son and the mess he made of his marriage.  There are other pithy plot lines that scream time out!  Jack's growing fondness for coaching the man-boys turns into a symbiotic relationship.  He cleans up his act (not his foul mouth) until another heavy handed melodramatic tragedy strikes.  "The Way Back" is way of the mark as a winning sports drama.  Directed by Gavin O'Connor ("Miracle") couldn't bring any zeal or anything real into this wearisome mess.  The assistant coach, comedian Al Madrigal, elevates the film when on the floor.  Every scene contains a listless Affleck who should've been sidelined.  Don't waste time on this dud.  You'll never get it back.