The Story: I was waiting for the "highlight" of this movie the whole time.... nothing! Nothing extremely scary or sad or shocking, just very flat. Didn't really get my full attention. At the end of the movie, my reaction was "that is it?" The Directing: Julia Roberts did a wonderful job portraying being a mom who loves so much about her children. She put in so much emotion. Unfortunately, the script wasn't that excellent. No scene was very memorable.

I was thoroughly engaged throughout this film. And I probably should be. I am 32 years old with a mother who died when I was 26 to a heart attack from a drug overdose, and a father that died at the beginning of 2018 from alcoholism and liver failure. I have two brothers who went through drug addiction growing up in their teens through twenties, and my aunts were in Julia Roberts shoes in this movie. I was even like the sister here - cracking jokes everyone they tried to get clean and not trusting them; getting them into trouble. My aunts, so desperate to get them clean, did anything they could to help. And I mean anything. Thinking that it would be their last time or it would be the time they finally got better. I am writing this because I read a review saying that Julia Roberts character was unbelievable - her going through this entire journey to find Ben. And I'm here to say that yes it is unbelievable but it's also very much a real thing. I watched it. I watched aunts travel through the streets of Detroit in the dead of winter to find my brothers, i watched them get literally shot at as they grabbed them to take them home. This may seem like some lifetime movie that could never happen - but it does. And it happened to me. This movie requires people who have never experienced this to accept it as fiction or some stretched reality. But for those of who lived this, it's a reminder of what we've gone through. And to call this unbelievable is probably justified - because it is unbelievable the things family will go through for their loved ones. Unbelievable and impossible are two very different things. The things this mother did is very possible, and very real, albeit unbelievable. Family is unbelievable when it comes to saving the ones they love. For anyone wondering, my two brothers are both 6/7 years clean and doing much better than we ever thought they could. And yes, I have saved my brothers life before- I watched him cough up black tar as his entire body "locked up" from a reaction and called 911 for them to save his life. And while i laid on the floor next to my mother crying as she laid lifeless, and watched as the doctors shook their head as they couldn't save my father, I still know that there are people that need help and that should get help- and if a movie like this can even one person go the extra set to help someone who needs help - than these movies are worth more than the world.

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source: Ben Is Back

source: Ben Is Back

Good subject, but Poor Story and Script killed any Box office chances of success. The acting is good but the story sucks and the script is poor. There was no chemistry between Julia and Courtney. A single wealthy mom with only two kids would have been better. Holly blaming a retired MD in the Mall for causing her son addiction to street drugs is the most stupid quote I have heard this year. It takes a lot of talent and skills to write a good tragedy. This is not it, Peter!

Lucas Hedges was good but just didn't dazzle me in any way. Julia gives so much and his subtlety - or blandness - left me wanting more. Would have loved to have seen someone new with more edge essay the role.

This move is so poor in script... making it not likely to believe, it gets you out of the fictional world. Dialogues are constructed in a way the information you get is forced and not smooth as its supposed to be. Also the camera movements gives you the sense this is a reality show and not a movie... something that can be used in defense to say this is used to make it feel "real" and daily basis but the other things are so bad constructed that it just doesn't have that point. Very disappointing. Cant believe Julia said yes to this nor Lucas Hedges, which is a very good rising actor (I guess because this was a movie made by his father)