UA mother willing to do anything to save her son from the drug tunnel. In Well is back – airing tonight at 21.25 on Rai 1 – Julia Roberts is the brave Holly Burnsseverely tested by her son’s addiction Wellinterpreted by Lucas Hedges. Released in 2018, the film is directed by Peter Hedges, father of the protagonist and director, among others, of About a boy.
Well is backthe plot
Ben is 19 and has been living in a drug rehabilitation community for a few months. On Christmas Eve he returns home without warning to spend the holidays with his family. Holly is delighted to have her son back with herbut the new husband Neal Beeby (Courtney B. Vance) He doesn’t look favorably on the boy’s presence, because he fears that the festive atmosphere could give way to problems and tensions. He is also of the same opinion Ivy (Kathryn Newton), Ben’s sister.
Despite Holly’s contentment, it’s clear right away that Ben’s detox journey is only just beginning. The boy is not yet able to live outside the community and his hyperactivity arouses various suspicions. The family then tries to find out if he still uses drugs. The mother becomes his shadowin an effort to protect it as much as possible, and uses several tricks to make sure it is clean.
She forces him to take a urine test, which is negative, and accompanies him to meetings for anonymous alcoholics and drug addicts. Ben he has not taken drugs since he joined the community, but everyone has the feeling that something is tormenting him. And they are right. Holly, in fact, finds a bag of drugs. She has an altercation with her sonbut gives him a second chance in the hope of spending the following days in complete serenity.
Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges in “Ben is back”. (IPA)
The kidnapping of the dog Pons and Ben’s escape
Christmas arrives and the family goes to church. In addition to the religious purpose, it is a public occasion to reintroduce the son to the whole neighborhood, but his reputation now precedes him. Despite the elegant suit, Ben’s past comes knocking again. He is accused of dragging Maggie into the drug tunnela friend of hers who died of an overdose a few years earlier.
When they get home, they find that someone kidnapped Ben’s dog, Pons. It is evident that this is a retaliation and it is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The balances in the house are jumping, Neel blames Ben for causing trouble since his arrival and Ben runs away. Holly follows him to check that she isn’t putting herself in danger, but after arguing with Maggie’s father, who was initially suspected in the kidnapping, Ben figures out who it was.
He asks his mother to trust him and come home, but Holly is not at all sure she can leave him alone and at that point Ben confesses that the drug he found on him was in the attic, where he had hidden it long ago. To him to tell her, he took it to throw it away and thus avoid that someone else can lose their skin. However, Holly doesn’t trust her and stays, but soon realizes that managing her child will be anything but easy.
The desperate gesture of a mother
At a gas station, Ben steals her car and for Holly it’s the beginning of a nightmare. Not knowing where to turn and seriously scared of what might happen, asks Maggie’s mother for help, with whom she was friends in the past. Despite her appearances, the woman understands her despair and lends her the car, but most of all she gives her a substance to inject into her nose, in case she finds Ben overdosed on her.
In search of Ben also participates Ivy, who has had the enlightenment to connect the family’s phones to her computer. By doing so, she finds out where her brother is. Once there, Holly can only see that there is no trace of her son. The phone, in fact, is in a garbage can. The desperate search continues. Holly meets Spencer, an old friend of Ben’s also a drug addict. The boy has no intention of disclosing his son’s whereabouts, but asks her for money to buy drugs. Eventually he gives in, but as long as you call him her mother to tell her he’s still alive.
Meanwhile, Ben arrives at the perpetrator of the kidnapping. It is about Clayton (Michael Esper), a trafficker with whom he still has some unfinished business. To free himself from his grip, he has to get a job done. To thank him, Clayton returns Pons to him and gives him a dose of drugs. While in, Holly realizes that the only way to save Ben from extreme gestures is to use hard manners. He goes to the police and reports him for the theft of the car. The ending is waiting to be discovered.
Actors Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges in “Ben is back”. (IPA)
Two intense roles for Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges
Well is back tells the drama of drugs not only of those who experience it in the first person, but also of those who revolve around. Holly Burns is a courageous mother called to save her son from the worst enemy: himself. Julia Roberts gives an intense interpretation, which adds pathos to the story.
And it does the same Lucas Hedges, born in 1996, with a well underway career. Among the films in which she has starred, Grand Budapest Hotel, The rules of the game, Manchester by the sea, Lady Bird And Let them talk. Although it was not a box office success, the film garnered positive reviews since the presentation to Toronto International Film Festival in 2018.
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