66
Metascore
40 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The A.V. ClubCharles BramescoThe A.V. ClubCharles BramescoBetween the known metatext and Affleck’s bone-deep commitment, this moving central performance largely purges the film of its high potential for the maudlin.
- The Way Back shares those convictions and themes, but its greatest asset is its honesty.
- 80IGNWitney SeiboldIGNWitney SeiboldThe Way Back is a somber sports drama more interested in exploring the plight of its hero than in just the big games.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAffleck gives the impression of intimate familiarity with the anguish and self-disgust that dominate Jack’s life; this character and project clearly meant something important to him, as the title bluntly suggests, and he gives it his all without overdoing the melodrama.
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichWinning and losing are relative terms, but this is the first time in forever that Affleck feels like he’s got skin in the game.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAffleck keeps the movie anchored with his rumpled, unshowy performance: a man killing himself to live, until he can start to believe that maybe there's a better way.
- 70Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonOften in sports, teams run the same plays over and over again, simply because they work. That’s true of The Way Back as well: We appreciate the expert skill, even if we know almost every move by heart.
- 60The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe movie withholds a crucial bit of back story in early scenes only to drop it like an anvil later on. Since the revelation is known to the characters the whole time, the decision to deploy it as a surprise is cheap and shameless — a blatant foul in a movie otherwise filled with smoothly executed plays.
- 50VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanI’d love to see Affleck star in a film about an addict with nothing to explain his addiction but his own flawed, desperate, hungry soul. That’s a movie that could speak to us — the way that Ben Affleck’s real story already does — far more than this modestly well-made Sunday-school lesson.
- 40The GuardianBenjamin LeeThe GuardianBenjamin LeeIt sleepily hits the beats we expect but without the emotion or passion required to make them land, a by-the-numbers exercise from someone with barely enough energy to count.