Manchester By The Sea
Starring: Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler
Directed by: Kenneth Lonergan
Rated: R
Sometimes Lee hurts. Sometimes he is confused. Sometimes he's numb. Sometimes he's okay. Sometimes Lee doesn't want to talk. Lee has been visited by an unwelcome guest who will not leave: Grief.
When confronted with a tragedy, grief is inevitable. We all experience and react to it in different ways. We might push it down, hide from it, or act as if everything is fine. Sometimes, we feel we've escaped its grasps. Then when we least expect it, the emotion appears again at the worst time. No matter how hard we try, we can't ignore or hide from grief. It's an emotion that we all have to work through. For some, it's too difficult to acknowledge.
Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is a janitor in Boston. He lives in a tiny apartment, isolated from society. One day, he gets a call that his beloved brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has died of heart failure. Joe has named Lee as guardian of his 16-year-old son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges), back in Manchester. A painful past keeps Lee at bay from the town. Can he stay to confront his painful past and be Patrick's guardian?
Manchester by the Sea is a strikingly honest portrayal of grief. Director Kenneth Lonergan shows the audience how this emotion can affect two people in completely different ways. The main focus is Lee, a depressed man struggling with the loss of his brother who is suddenly pushed into the guardian role. It's fascinating how Lonergan captures the realistic aspects of grief through Lee's life. He makes funeral arrangements, reads Joe's will, and drives Patrick wherever he needs to go. These aspects of the film really stood out to me because Lonergan channels grief through day-to-day monotony.
The other focus is Patrick, a teenage boy who just lost his father. For much of the film, Patrick is stuck in denial. He tries to carry on his high school life dragging Lee into his bratty misadventures. Lee and Patrick have a unique dynamic throughout the film. The two probably understand each other best; both are mourning the loss of a person who held their life together in times of disrepair. But can they help each other through the difficult time?
There's so much to say about Casey Affleck's shattering performance as Lee Chandler. Affleck plays Lee in a very subdued manner. This is not a showy performance, but deeply internal. At the beginning of the film, he is depressed, reclusive and borderline alcoholic. As the film progresses, we find out that a traumatic event has crushed him. He has completely shut himself off from society to punish himself for the trauma. (One could make the point there's a lot of symbolism in the fact that Lee works day-to-day as a janitor fixing as many exterior objects as possible, yet cannot fix his own inner turmoil.) Years of crumbling emotion hide behind a tough exterior. Affleck doesn't channel Lee's emotional pain in an obvious way by sobbing loudly or screaming at the camera. Instead, he conveys his emotions through facial expressions in his most painful moments that show the audience exactly what he's feeling. An Oscar nomination is inevitable with a performance of this magnitude.
Michelle Williams is in the film very little as Lee's ex-wife, Randi. But she is stellar in these scenes. Her main acting showcase is a 3-minute scene with Casey Affleck near the end of the film. This scene contains the best acting I've seen all year. The way the two actors talk to each other doesn't even feel like watching a film, it feels like viewing a gut wrenching real life conversation. The entire theater was in tears watching it unfold. I don't know who her competition will be, but you can be sure that Michelle Williams will be attending the Oscars for a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Newcomer Lucas Hedges is Patrick. He comes across as a bratty and stubborn teen. However, as the film progresses, we see that Joe's death is finally getting through to Patrick and we begin to see the emotional layers to his character. Many moments between Patrick and Lee add humor to the film. I know, it sounds surprising after everything I just wrote about grief and loss. But there is genuine, dry humor in this film that caught me off guard.
I don't have many complaints about this film. However, there are some editing choices that could be changed. It feels like a few scenes are a bit long and could be cut. (Ex: Patrick's multiple band practice scenes don't feel super necessary).
Manchester By The Sea opens several years before Joe's death on a cloudy day in Manchester. Joe, Lee, and Patrick Chandler are out fishing on their family boat. They talk about "shahhhkkks and Bahston" with their thick Massachusetts accents. (A staple for a film set in New England. Give me a fake Boston accent and I'm happy.) Lee asks his 7-year-old nephew, "If you could take one guy to an island with you between me and your father who would you take?" His young nephew picks his father, of course. No one can blame him. Everyone in town knows Joe Chandler is the best of the family. He's dependable, kind, and strong. Lee is a different story. Little does Lee know the significance of his question to Patrick on that ordinary day in Manchester. When Joe Chandler dies, Patrick and Lee will be stuck on an island together.....an island of grief. They are navigating this territory together. Yet, both Lee and Patrick share an inability to vocalize their emotions, which hinders their departure from the symbolic island.
These are the moments that make you appreciate the depth of writing in this film. Beautifully written and wonderfully performed, Manchester by the Sea is a raw and realistic portrait of grief. Combining elements of life, death, and (surprisingly) humor, this is a drama not to be missed.
(Just remember to bring the tissues.)
My Rating: 9/10